Man City Should Jump at Napoli's £10 Million Transfer Offer for Javi Garcia

According to a report in The Sun, Napoli are set to launch a bid for Manchester City midfielder Javi Garcia in January. Rafael Benitez is said to have sent scouts to watch Garcia in action against Chelsea in October, and they were suitably impressed, with a £10 million bid now being lined up.

It’s a move that would make sense for City given that Garcia has failed to nail down a first-team spot since his move from Benfica 15 months ago. He’s often appeared to struggle with the pace of the English game, unable to influence matches in the way he’d like.

A move to Serie A, where the pace is less important than in the Premier League, may be just what he needs. He is very capable tactically and can read the game well, and his qualities would be better suited to the Italian style of play.

Indeed, in the 4-2 win over Viktoria Plzen, a side that were patient as opposed to quick, he looked comfortable, managing to get his passing game going to good effect. But performances where he has looked impressive have been too few and far between since his arrival at the Etihad.

City paid Benfica £16 million for him, via Phil McNulty of BBC Sport, and the opportunity to recoup a decent proportion of that must surely appeal to Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, the club’s chief executive and the sporting director.

Garcia was signed by Roberto Mancini as part of his last-minute trolley dash around Europe in the summer of 2012. Having just won the title, Mancini wanted to kick on and establish City as the best side in England, but Brian Marwood’s poor performance in his role as football administrator meant they lost out on a host of big-name signings, including Javi Martinez, via John Edwards of the Daily Mail Online, who signed for Bayern Munich.

A late splurge of frenzied transfer activity saw City sign five new players on the final day, many of whom failed to work out. Garcia was identified as an upgrade on the two-dimensional Nigel de Jong, an out-and-out defensive midfielder, who excelled at breaking up opposition attacks but struggled with anything more expansive; he had left for AC Milan.

However, Garcia has proven to be far less effective defensively than de Jong and not much better in an attacking sense, either. There are too many limitations to his game.

This season, he's filled in for Vincent Kompany at centre-back, and after some initial concerns, he has risen to the challenge of playing in an unfamiliar position and performed admirably but never really looked fully comfortable there, either.

It's a move that simply hasn't worked out, and a transfer away would appear to suit both City and the player.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2013-14 season. Follow him on Twitter here @TypicalCity