Richards compares Man City target Koulibaly with Mangala

Joe Williams
Kalidou Koulibaly Napoli

Micah Richards has compared Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly to former Manchester City centre-back Eliaquim Mangala.

A recent report claimed that City could spend £300m on new players this summer after sealing deals for Ferran Torres from Valencia and Nathan Ake from Bournemouth.

Koulibaly struggled on Saturday night against Barcelona where Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez gave him a difficult game as Napoli were knocked out of the Champions League.


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And Richards doubts that City would be getting a player much better than former centre-back Mangala.

“I think his price-tag is £20milllion less,” Richards told CBS Sports. “Everyone talks about how he is supposed to be composed on the ball, he’s aggressive but I see similarities to Mangala – and he went to City and it didn’t really work out for him there so I’m not totally convinced after that performance.”

Speaking recently, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis said: “Kalidou is a great person, I would be terribly sad to lose him. But there is a time for everything, even to move apart.

“But the €90m (£79m/$104m) asking price is not on the table and so it takes two to make a deal.”