Barcelona are moving towards an agreement for Rodri, with talks reportedly entering the final stage as the midfielder edges closer to a return to Manchester City training this week.<\/p>\n
Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona have still not reached the asking price, but an offer of an initial $63.5 million (\u00a347 million), before add-ons, has pushed negotiations to the point where the finer details are being worked through. There is even a suggestion that the gap between the clubs could be narrowed by including a player from the Barcelona squad. Elsewhere, City have been linked with 19-year-old midfielder Tommy Marqu\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
The urgency is clear from Barcelona\u2019s side. Hansi Flick wants the matter resolved quickly so he can spend as much time as possible preparing with his reshaped squad before the new season gets underway.<\/p>\n
Rodri\u2019s summer has been interrupted more than most after winning the World Cup with Spain. His return to pre-season has been delayed, and he has yet to rejoin City, missing Enzo Maresca\u2019s entire first pre-season, which finished this weekend before the Community Shield against Arsenal next Sunday, Aug. 16.<\/p>\n
A return is now imminent. Rodri is expected to be available for City in some capacity, with his comeback set for two days earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, he will be in Manchester,\u201d Maresca explained. \u201cThere is no update. On Aug. 14 he will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
A swift resolution would suit both clubs. Barcelona want Rodri in place as soon as possible to maximise their preparation time, while City also need to plan for a future without such an influential figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona move closer to Rodri talks as Maresca confirms the midfielder\u2019s Manchester City return date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,1397],"tags":[180,1980],"class_list":["post-18397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-transfer-news","tag-player-news","tag-pre-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18397","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=18397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}