Manchester City\u2019s expected move for Ayyoub Bouaddi may only be part of a wider reshaping of the squad before the transfer window shuts. The teenager\u2019s arrival would not merely add another body to the group, it could also accelerate further movement in and out of the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n
With Rodri already sold to Barcelona, Tijjani Reijnders having moved to Saudi Arabia and Nico Gonz\u00e1lez increasingly likely to join Newcastle United before the deadline, City have room to bring in a third major midfield signing. Gonz\u00e1lez was not used in Sunday\u2019s comeback win over Bournemouth, while Marc Gu\u00e9hi was used in midfield in a surprise call that Enzo Maresca said he had only settled on shortly before the match. \u201cSometimes you visualize things.\u201d<\/p>\n
That experiment also hinted at a broader issue: depth. Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107, who is into the final year of his contract and will turn 33 before this season ends, remained on the bench until replacing an injured Anderson, who was struggling to adapt to his new role. Nico O\u2019Reilly, normally an academy midfielder but now used at left back, started as a No. 10 and offered little influence.<\/p>\n
City\u2019s options for the next central midfield addition are understood to include Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, Alexis Mac Allister, Alex Scott and Adam Wharton. Fern\u00e1ndez remains a possible late target despite Chelsea\u2019s deadline for offers passing, and a move would likely cost $163.7 million (\u00a3120 million). That would set a new City transfer record and lift their summer midfield spending to about $425 million (\u00a3312 million).<\/p>\n
The outlay is being balanced by major sales. The proposed $68.2 million (\u00a350 million) move of Gonz\u00e1lez to Newcastle is said to be moving closer, while Rodri, Reijnders, James Trafford, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ak\u00e9 have already brought in around $248 million (\u00a3182 million). Savinho could follow Tottenham Hotspur for up to $115.9 million (\u00a385 million), while Omar Marmoush is set to join Spurs on loan before a $68.2 million transfer next year.<\/p>\n
Bouaddi\u2019s move also has consequences beyond City, with Lille now looking for a replacement. The club are not expected to spend heavily and instead are targeting Real Madrid\u2019s 19-year-old Thiago Pitarch, though the Spanish side have rejected their approach and want him to stay. Lille manager Davide Ancelotti was previously a Real Madrid assistant under his father, Carlo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bouaddi could trigger more midfield changes at City, with sales, signings and late transfer movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,1397],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-18730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-transfer-news","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18730","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=18730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}