Valencia new boy Eliaquim Mangala has defended his record at Manchester City and revealed that he spoke to Pep Guardiola before leaving the club this summer.
Manchester City paid a hefty fee to snare Mangala away from FC Porto a couple of years ago, but the Frenchman never really settled down to become a regular starter at the Eithad.
And following the arrival of Guardiola this summer it became clear that the defender was not in the new manager’s plans for the season, prompting his departure from the club.
Mangala joined Valencia on a season-long loan deal on deadline day, but the Frenchman is not ready to accept that he was a flop at Manchester City as he pointed out that the Citizens won more when he was in the team.
Speaking to Spanish daily Marca, the defender said: “City were different, the Premier League is different.
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“The team did not work well, but statistics said that more games were won when I played than when I was not playing.
“The only thing I missed out on was a league title, but I also got to play in the semi-finals of the Champions League.”
Despite Guardiola freezing him out of the first team set-up, Mangala stressed that he has no ill-feelings towards the Manchester City boss, revealing that the manager accepted the fact that he needs to play regularly this season.
“I spoke with Pep, but there were many players and he told me that he understood that I wanted to play and had no problems.”
