Pep Guardiola Prepared to Hand Eliaquim Mangala Another Opportunity to Prove His Worth at Man City

Pep Guardiola is ready to give Eliaquim Mangala another chance to prove he can have a future at Manchester City.

The defender spent last season on loan at Spanish club Valencia, and looked poised to depart the Etihad for good this summer, with City chasing West Brom's Jonny Evans.

However, the Frenchman stayed put, and so did Evans.

With John Stones now injured and Vincent Kompany unlikely to play consistently, despite being healthy at the moment, Guardiola will be placing his faith in the 26-year-old Mangala.

“He’s a player with a lot of experience," the Spaniard said, via Football 365 "I’m really impressed with his behaviour in the training sessions. He didn’t play regularly until now but he always accepts that and he is always helping.

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“For a manager, for a club, for the environment that is so important. He has specific qualities and in this league it’s important. We are going to use him. We believe we need him. He’s a player for us and he is going to stay here.”

Mangala added that he is waiting for his opportunity and remaining patient, also insisting that winning titles is the most important thing.

“We’ve got a big squad here, so many players that are good for the team,” he said. “It’s good because we have so many competitions to play, so many games.

“So we have to be patient sometimes. In my case that’s happened to me. I didn’t play a lot of games.

“I think this moment is very important when you want to win titles. In December and January you have so many games.

“You play a lot of games and some players go to their national teams, so we need everybody and it’s good for me that I can play some games and I can help the team.

“This is very important to me. I’m here when the manager needs me to play. I’m just waiting for the opportunity.”