Manchester City have moved towards a major deal for Ayyoub Bouaddi after head coach Enzo Maresca publicly pressed for recruitment in midfield, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n
The City manager made clear that replacing elite departures is part of the club\u2019s ongoing task. \u201cWe try to find the new Rodri, it is what it is,\u201d he shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Before] Rodri arrived here, he didn\u2019t win the Ballon d\u2019Or, he didn\u2019t win the Champions League, he didn\u2019t win the Club World Cup. He joined the club then he achieved many important things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca also pointed to the club\u2019s history of moving quickly when key figures leave. \u201cI was thinking on Thursday night,\u201d the Italian manager mused, \u201cwhen David Silva was here, everyone was worried and Kevin [De Bruyne] arrived. When Sergio [Ag\u00fcero] was here, everyone was worried [when he was going to leave] and Erling [Haaland] arrived. Fernandinho? Rodri arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they leave, you need to be good in recruiting the next one. They are all similar, David, Kevin, Fernandinho, Rodri, Erling\u2014there is one more\u2014it is normal, it is change, it is not a problem, go again and try to do the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bouaddi has now been placed into that sequence of high-level arrivals. City had tracked the 18-year-old before his standout role for Morocco at this summer\u2019s World Cup, but those displays also pushed Lille to hold firm on a sizeable asking price. City initially seemed reluctant to match it.<\/p>\n
That changed after the Community Shield defeat to Arsenal last weekend, with RMC Sport’s Fabrice Hawkins first reporting on Sunday, just before the Premier League opener against Bournemouth, that the clubs had reached a full agreement. Bouaddi will cost at least $111 million, with a further $5.8 million possible in add-ons.<\/p>\n
The fee makes him City\u2019s third most expensive signing and sets a new record for Lille\u2019s biggest sale.<\/p>\n
There may still be more business to come. City are expected to consider another midfielder after Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva all moved on this summer. BBC Sport report that hope remains over Chelsea\u2019s Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, while Bournemouth\u2019s Alex Scott, Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace and Liverpool leader Alexis Mac Allister have also been mentioned.<\/p>\n
Outgoings are also set to continue. Savinho\u2019s proposed move to Tottenham Hotspur is expected to be followed by another Spurs bid for Omar Marmoush, while Nico Gonz\u00e1lez is also thought to have been given the green light for a summer exit to Newcastle United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City close in on Bouaddi as Maresca\u2019s transfer calls are met with a record fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,1163],"tags":[1836],"class_list":["post-18700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-transfers","tag-2026-27-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18700","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=18700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}