Former player claims Man United and Man City target is worth £20m less after Champions League nightmare

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Rational recruitment should never be based purely on one performance – no matter how good or bad it was.

Napoli went out of the Champions League last night after suffering a heavy defeat against Barcelona, while highly rated defender Kalidou Koulibaly had a tough time against Lionel Messi.

It’s worth pointing out that Messi is pretty good so he won’t be the only player who has that issue, so these comments from Micah Richards make for interesting reading:

“I think his price-tag is £20m less. 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.”

They were reported by The Manchester Evening News, while The Express also talked about his situation and linked the Napoli man with both Manchester clubs.

The problem with those comments from Richards is he doesn’t talk about what he’s seen in him before, simply that he’s taken his opinion from what others have said and he’s written him off after one poor game – against Barcelona.

At his best he is a physical defender with the pace and power to deal with any threat, while he’s good on the ball and can bring it out of defence.

To compare him to Mangala is almost scandalous, and it’s unlikely that Napoli will reduce his asking price by that much for one poor game.

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