8 centre-backs Manchester City have signed to partner Vincent Kompany in recent years

6) Eliaquim Mangala

Citizens had huge hopes resting on an exorbitant Mangala

The Frenchman signed for Manchester City in the summer of 2014 for about £40 million from Porto. Pellegrini had also made an attempt to sign the player in January that year but the deal failed to materialise.

With the price Mangala came with, fans expected that he would be the perfect rock at the back alongside Kompany, but he failed to deliver consistently well when called upon. Mangala has looked shaky along with being unable to read the game properly, and his future seems uncertain under Spaniard Guardiola, with rumours doing the rounds that he too is on his way out of the Manchester club.