Manchester City are not planning to treat Ayyoub Bouaddi as the sole answer if Rodri leaves, even after already setting a new club record to bring in Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest. The club could still go after another major target, with Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez now identified as the preferred option.<\/p>\n
The possibility of reviving interest in Fern\u00e1ndez, first reported before the end of last season, would push City\u2019s summer spending beyond $400 million if Rodri were also sold. In that scenario, Barcelona may be the likeliest destination, especially after a Catalan move to intervene in the race began.<\/p>\n
According to the Manchester Evening News, City intend to use a replacement policy for anyone who departs during the rest of the window. That does not apply only to Rodri. Tijjani Reijnders is also being strongly linked with Nottingham Forest, while another exit would trigger another signing. Savinho is one example of a player who would also be replaced if he went.<\/p>\n
For the moment, Rodri is still at the club. BBC Sport report that City are \u201copen to selling\u201d the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or winner, but have already rejected Barcelona\u2019s opening bid. That offer was worth $52 million (\u00a338.5 million), well below a valuation that is close to double. City want more than $81 million (\u00a360 million) before agreeing to a sale.<\/p>\n
Although he has previously spoken up about a move to Real Madrid and was born in the city, Rodri is said to have approved talks with Barcelona. The same report adds that discussions with Real Madrid have now stopped completely.<\/p>\n
Gianluca Di Marzio says Enzo Maresca\u2019s \u201cdream\u201d replacement has \u201ca specific name.\u201d That name is Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez. The link is straightforward: the pair spent 18 months together at Chelsea, ending in January after City approached Maresca about possibly replacing Pep Guardiola. Maresca had made Fern\u00e1ndez one of Chelsea\u2019s vice-captains in 2024.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez had seemed short of options to leave Stamford Bridge this summer. He had openly pined for Real Madrid more than once last season without encouragement from Spain, while a move to Paris Saint-Germain never looked especially likely. City\u2019s interest, which first emerged in late April, briefly gained traction before fading, and no approach was expected this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City reject Barcelona’s first Rodri bid and keep Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez in view as a possible replacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056],"tags":[1768],"class_list":["post-18307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","tag-ayyoub-bouaddi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307","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=18307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}