We Salute Manchester City’s Nicolas Otamendi

Nicolas Otamendi has made his first appearance of the season against Tottenham Hotspur after turning down the chance to move on from Manchester City in the Summer transfer window.

When Manchester City signed Nicolas Otamendi from Valencia on August 20 2015 for £40 million, no one quite knew what to expect. Was this to be another of our burgeoning collection of central defenders, who despite great cost, were not quite as good or reliable as they needed to be?

Quite soon after joining though he became a fan favourite. Or to be precise, a favourite of this fan at least! He was generally much maligned, simply because of the very things which I valued! He was on occasion somewhat reckless and cavalier in his approach to last man defending and always seemed to be playing on the edge of aggression. Always seemed to be seconds away from a red card.

And then there was his tackles – slide tackling in particular, which is a skill not much celebrated these days. Yet, I have always enjoyed a good slide tackle and Otamendi was a key proponent of ambitious last ditch slide tackles. He was a player who always seemed to be teetering on the edge of chaos, and it was exciting to see none of us knew quite which way he would go – second to second, game to game.

More from Man City Square

• Rodri believes City can have even more success this season
• Grealish, Stones, and Kovacic will NOT play tomorrow
• My Manchester City UCL Group Stage predictions
• After Injury Guardiola is back in Etihad
• Phil Foden Scores Opener for England Against Scotland

Of course I should point out that there were some fans who did not seem to value these things!

I even loved his salute – in honour of his nickname – The General – which he did after scoring. Although, sadly we have seen that celebration relatively infrequently during his time at Manchester City!

And then along came Pep Guardiola and he went and made Otamendi better! Whether it was the coaching of Guardiola or the attention of one of his team, but Otamendi has improved his positional play immeasurably and consequently he has been our first choice centre back for long periods. This is a measure of his reliability and how he has managed that chaos!

These days Otamendi tends to be preferred by Pep if he is facing a physical team. Because, Otamendi has a strong physicality to his game and seems to enjoy the rougher aspects of the beautiful game. He thrives on challenges and when we play against tall teams which survive on headers then we wheel out the General to deal with the issue.

Last season Otamendi saw his game time reduced as others were often preferred and that frustration for the 31 year old Argentinian seemed to drive a willingness to move back to La Liga. Talks went ahead but whether the asking price and wages were never met or whether the fact Vincent Kompany left, making a clearer route to the first team is not clear.

Thankfully we have Otamendi still at the club and I expect him to make a big impact in the season ahead as our defensive leader!

Otamendi is under contract at Manchester City until Summer 2022 and in his City career has amassed 173 appearances to date, scoring 8 times and assisting a further 4. Now in his 5th year at City we salute the General!