Matija Nastasic Absence Remains a Manchester City Mystery

There’s been a calmness and serenity at Manchester City since Manuel Pellegrini took over.

The Chilean has put an end to the days of City being a constant source of media headlines after the Roberto Mancini era had become too often mired in controversy. Player unhappiness and fights on the training field felt like regular occurrences back then, but Pellegrini soon set about restoring positivity in a group of players who, it seemed, had lost respect for their former boss.

Players who struggled for form under Mancini were revitalised under Pellegrini. His famed man-management skills seemed to suit the likes of Samir Nasri, Aleksandar Kolarov and Edin Dzeko, all of whom looked remarkably close to the exit door during the final weeks of the Italian’s reign.

However, for a couple of players, the reverse appears to be true.

One such individual is Matija Nastasic, who excelled under Mancini and was one of the few bright spots of his final season in charge.

Under Pellegrini, he has been banished to the sidelines.

In fact, this season, he hasn’t featured since the Community Shield. Meanwhile, Dedryck Boyata—a player most would admit has little chance of ever carving out a career as a regular in the top flight—has been preferred to the Serbian on City’s bench on numerous occasions.

Jon Super/Associated Press

It’s a bizarre situation which those without access to the dressing room are struggling to comprehend.

After his first season at City, Nastasic was considered one of the finest young centre-back talents around. With a series of remarkably assured displays, beginning with his debut at the Bernabeu, he convinced almost all those who saw him play that City had picked up a gem.

Now he’s the forgotten man, so far from first-team action he’s not been named even as a substitute all season.

In one telling moment at a press conference at Carrington earlier in the campaign, Pellegrini failed to name Nastasic when listing his centre-back options. He quickly apologised and tried to rectify the situation, but it said a lot about how far Nastasic’s stock has fallen in such a short space of time.

His last Premier League appearance came back in February when City lost at home to Chelsea. It was a result which knocked them off form and dented their title bid, but Nastasic has paid the heaviest possible price for his poor display.

Vincent Kompany is clearly the club’s No. 1 centre-back, with Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis fighting it out for the spot to the left of him. Boyata is yet to start this season, and that’s unlikely to change given City are now out of the League Cup, but he has been named as a substitute numerous times.

Clearly, he is above Nastasic in the pecking order.

It’s surely the ultimate insult to Nastasic that a player as inadequate as Boyata, who was surely only given a new contract because of his status as club-trained and homegrown, appears more likely to see first-team action than him.

Darko Vojinovic/Associated Press

Quite whether there is a route back into the first team for the 21-year-old remains unclear, but it looks extremely unlikely. Rumours of a move to Inter Milan—where he would be reunited with Mancini—are now gathering pace, according to Simon Jones in the Daily Mail. His stock in Serie A remains high after his brief but impressive stint at Fiorentina before City signed him.

If it goes through, it’s a move which City may regret. There’s a dearth of young centre-backs in Europe with the talent to become top-class players, and Nastasic showed enough in his first season at the club to suggest he has ability in bucket loads.

Young players have dips in form, but if they have the ability and are worked with in the right way, a re-emergence usually happens. The sad thing for Nastasic is one dip in form looks to have cost him his City career.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.