4. Mateo Musacchio
Another young centre-back Pellegrini could sign this summer is Villarreal's Mateo Musacchio. The 22-year-old has only just recently started making a name for himself in La Liga having at last broken into Villarreal's first team after emerging from their B squad. Since then the Argentina international has usurped the more experienced Iván Marcano and Gonzalo Rodríguez in Marcelino García Toral and is fully deserving of his place at the heart of the Spaniard's defence. Statistically speaking, in the 2011/12 season, Musacchio was on paper
a more reliable defender than City stalwarts Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott, making 2.5 tackles per-game and 5 interceptions per-game to Kompany's 2.1 and 2.4 and Lescott's 1.4 and 1.7. And he's only gotten better since then, having made over 100 appearances for Villarreal since 2010 and being capped at senior level by Argentina. And with Lescott now facing an uncertain future at the Etihad coupled with City's other aforementioned defensive woes, Musacchio, much like Papadopoulos, would be a terrific addition to the squad in terms of both now and in the future.