Barcelona\u2019s pursuit of Rodri has moved into a decisive phase after the club reportedly lodged a third offer for the Manchester City midfielder, this time worth up to $81 million (\u00a360 million).<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has already seen two bids turned away, with Barcelona previously offering $52 million (\u00a338.5 million) and then $69.3 million (\u00a351.3 million). City, however, are understood to value the Golden Ball winner at $94.5 million (\u00a370 million), leaving the two clubs still apart despite a sense that progress is being made.<\/p>\n
MARCA reports that Barcelona\u2019s latest package has brought both sides closer to an \u201cagreement is closer.\u201d Mundo Deportivo goes further, saying Barcelona are \u201ccertain\u201d they will land Rodri this summer and expect the move to be completed \u201cno later than next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the talks continue, Rodri has already rejoined City ahead of Sunday\u2019s Community Shield against reigning English champions Arsenal. He met up with teammates, old and new, and also caught up with his new manager Enzo Maresca.<\/p>\n
Asked about the situation, Maresca kept his response deliberately guarded. \u201cThe transfer window is open, we can buy and sell players,\u201d Maresca said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything can happen. I just saw Rodri now in the building, I gave him a big hug. He looks good. Let\u2019s see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
City have been preparing for the possibility of losing Rodri. The club were previously linked with Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez as a replacement, though Chelsea\u2019s deadline for offers passed without action from City. They have already signed Elliot Anderson this summer and remain linked with Ayyoub Bouaddi, while Nico Gonz\u00e1lez and Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107 are also in the squad. Tijjani Reijnders is expected to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadsiah.<\/p>\n
Barcelona, meanwhile, entered the window with a crowded midfield, but Frenkie de Jong\u2019s knee injury altered their plans. Since then, the defending Spanish champions have focused heavily on Rodri, even as other issues remain unresolved, including the search for a striker to replace Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, who joined Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona have made a third bid for Rodri as Manchester City stand firm on their valuation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,238],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-18506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-manchester-city","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506","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=18506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}