Manchester City are confronting their toughest spell in a decade after the departures of Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva and John Stones since the end of last season. Rodri could still leave as Real Madrid begin to reciprocate his feelings of attraction.<\/p>\n
City had already acted before that possibility gathered pace, signing Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest in a club-record move. The transfer briefly made him the most expensive Englishman of all time, even if the original plan was likely to use him alongside Rodri.<\/p>\n
That leaves City looking for specific fixes and greater depth rather than a full rebuild. A winger is one area under consideration, and the Daily Mail reports that Chelsea\u2019s Pedro Neto is among the names being explored, with Yan Diomande and Ibrahim Mbaye also mentioned.<\/p>\n
Neto would also reconnect him with Maresca, under whom he made 77 appearances, contributed 27 goals and assists, and was the manager\u2019s seventh most-used player in 2024-25. City\u2019s interest is not tied only to Maresca\u2019s move back to the Etihad Stadium either, since they had been linked with Neto and several other clubs in 2024 before he signed with Chelsea.<\/p>\n
That naturally raises the question of which other players Maresca knew at Stamford Bridge might now enter the discussion. Malo Gusto looks the clearest practical fit, given the lack of depth at right back. Matheus Nunes remains the first choice there despite being a midfielder by trade, while Rico Lewis spent much of last season either out of favour or not healthy. The issue is the reported \u00a375 million ($100 million) valuation.<\/p>\n
City are stronger elsewhere in defence. Marc Gu\u00e9hi has already been signed to effectively replace Stones in advance, while Vitor Reis is back after a formative loan at Girona. Maresca also has three left-back options in Nico O\u2019Reilly, Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri and Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol.<\/p>\n
In midfield, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez had been a player of interest, but Mois\u00e9s Caicedo may be the better fit to replace Rodri, although he would be close to impossible to sign. Cole Palmer remains another persistent topic, with speculation that he is homesick in London and longs to return to Manchester refusing to go away. Maresca never saw the same explosive breakout star Mauricio Pochettino worked with in 2023-24, but the talent is still there.<\/p>\n
City recently gave Phil Foden a new contract, yet there is room for another fluid attacker as they prepare to stay active in four competitions well into 2027. If Palmer returned and rotated with Foden and Rayan Cherki, City would look formidable again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City are assessing Maresca-linked options as they look for depth, balance and attacking cover in 2026\/27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,1851],"tags":[1637,988,1856],"class_list":["post-18039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-manchester-city-transfer-news","tag-assists","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-manchester-city-transfer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}