Eliaquim Mangala has had a good season for Valencia. Even when everything else was falling down around him, the French defender wasn’t a disaster.
Recently he’s been excellent, and that’s underlined why Valencia will to keep the Manchester City owned player beyond the end of the current season.
Marca report on Friday that Mangala is a ‘priority’ for Valencia, and the club are looking at solutions to make sure he stays with them.
Manchester City and Valencia agreed a €18m buying option for the end of the loan, but Marca believe that’s prohibitive for the Spanish club. Indeed, any fee Manchester City would be willing to accept is likely prohibitive.
Therefore, Valencia want to negotiate a further loan, which would help the club balance their books and spend money elsewhere.
Such a scenario doesn’t seem ideal for Manchester City. With a contract running until June 2019, at the end of a further loan Mangala would only have a year left on his contract. There could be the option to extend for a further year and then loan the Frenchman to Valencia, but that doesn’t make a great deal of sense, it’s not solving the situation for Manchester City.
As Marca point out, Valencia have already made it publicly known they’ll be using the buying options they have on Simone Zaza and Fabian Orellana. Whilst Orellana’s transfer 
fee is going to be neither here nor there, Zaza’s redemption clause is €16m plus a further €2m in bonuses. Valencia are committed to the Zaza purchase after 10 games.
Zaza has scored two goals in 8 appearances for Valencia so far, that’s one more than Mangala.
Mangala has been very important for Valencia, easily one of their best players, if the club have €18m for Zaza, it takes some cheek to ask Manchester City for a further favourable loan.
Should Valencia not be willing to come up with a real deal for Manchester City then it’s time the club started looking for someone else to sell Mangala to. The fee of €18m would likely be achievable and they may even be able to get more.
It’s time to pile the pressure on Valencia.
