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In defence of signing Fabian Delph

Football - Manchester City v Watford - Barclays Premier League - Etihad Stadium - 29/8/15 Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini as he brings Fabian Delph on Reuters / Rebecca Naden Livepic (Reuters)

As Fabian Delph comes off the bench for Manchester City towards the end of a tepid match against Aston Villa, a common sentiment endlessly repeated on social media and by pundits is that signing Fabian Delph was a mistake. After all, let’s be honest here, so far this season has barely played a negligible role for Manchester City. Of Manchester City’s new signings this season, outside of the young prospects, Delph is the first team signing who has contributed the least so far. He has barely featured in the first team, and even with City fans, his signing has proved to be somewhat controversial.

Now as a midfielder, Delph is not superb, but he is a very solid player. I’d argue that Delph is at least a league average level player. Sure, there are midfielders better than him out there, but Delph is a decent player who is comfortable playing in the premier league. In this era of inflated transfer fees, can you really argue that paying £8 million or so for a league average midfielder is not a good deal?

For a player of his caliber, it really can’t be argued that he is overpriced. And to be fair, so far most of the criticism is not against Delph the player, instead, most of the criticism is against Delph the signing. After all, he has barely even played for the club, and despite being a decent player, Delph is trying to compete against two superstars in Yaya Toure and Fernandinho for a spot. Compared to the other players at the club, it does look like Delph isn’t up to the standards of a top club like Manchester City.

I strongly disagree with this sentiment. After all, yes it is true, Delph cannot hope to be a better player than Yaya Toure or Fernandinho, but that shouldn’t be what we expect from him. You don’t buy star players entering their prime for a paltry £8 million in current market conditions. Instead, City knew exactly what they were buying when Delph was signed, a decent solid backup.
Nobody is expecting Delph to turn into a superstar overnight. Because if he was expected to become a top midfielder, he would cost a lot more than £8 million. Instead, here I have to say that the is at least some merit in the jokes, Delph’s main position is “the bench”, and there is nothing wrong with that.

For a club who challenges on multiple fronts, City should expect to play 3 games in 8 days. As excellent as Toure and Fernandinho are, they are both aging midfielders who emphasize their strength and pace. Injuries will happened with those two, and when the injuries hit, you want Delph to be there as a backup. So essentially Delph is like insurance, you buy it just in case it is needed, but you should be happy that it isn’t getting used.

In a sense Delph is the perfect backup. He is a mature, experienced player with experience playing in the Premier League. He is the classic high floor, low ceiling type player. Delph is good, but hardly anyone expects him to become spectacular. Every season there are cheap players who “break out” and become stars, but they aren’t the type suited for backup duty. Instead, you want guys like Delph, guys who are around league average, happy to sit on the bench, and are proven to be able to get the job done when needed.

Some of the biggest criticism that people have against Delph is that he isn’t really doing a good job as a backup so far. He hasn’t really been available recently with all his injuries, and if we want to go back to the insurance analogy, you want your car insurance to be available all the time in case of an accident, not just occasionally. But I do feel that judging a signing in hindsight like this isn’t really valid criticism. Before City signed Delph, there really wasn’t any indication that he would suffer from serious hamstring issues like he is now. Delph has some prior knee issues, but not hamstring problems. Besides, his injuries came from national team duty, and there isn’t really anything City can do about that besides sigh and complain.

Fabian Delph is a pretty good signing for Manchester City if we judge him realistically. He is here as a backup, and he is playing the role perfectly. The fact that he isn’t playing isn’t an indication of him “failing” at City. As for his injuries, well, that’s just unfortunate and City really couldn’t have predicted them.