Man City have made a ‘surprise offer’ to Real Madrid for Rodrygo as the La Liga side line up a bid for Rodri, according to reports.
The Citizens won their fourth consecutive Premier League title last season as Pep Guardiola cemented his place as one of the best managers in English top-flight history.
Since then, there have been rumours about Guardiola’s future, while there is still uncertainty in the air over their 115 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.
Julian Alvarez, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Sergio Romez and Tommy Doyle have all left permanently, while Yan Couto and Kalvin Phillips have departed on loan.
Savinho has arrived as their only signing from Troyes, while widespread reports indicate that Ilkay Gundogan will return to the Etihad Stadium from Barcelona.
Man City are looking for a replacement for Alvarez and now reports in Spain claim that the Citizens have made a ‘surprise offer’ for Real Madrid forward Rodrygo.
The report adds that ‘not everyone is happy’ at the arrival of Kylian Mbappe at the Bernabeu with Rodrygo ‘going through a difficult time’.
The young Brazilian ‘feels that he is not being valued as he should be, and this discontent has begun to affect his relationship with the team’.
Rodrygo ‘feels that he is being displaced and underestimated’ and the ‘unrest has not gone unnoticed in the transfer market’ with Man City ‘closely monitoring’ with Guardiola seeing ‘a perfect opportunity to strengthen his squad’.
MORE MAN CITY COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Man City FFP: Citizens could pay ‘unlimited compensation’ to other Premier League clubs
👉 ‘Don’t take the p*ss’ – Chelsea star told to ‘shut your mouth’ after Man City defeat
👉 Man City ‘reach full agreement’ for Gundogan as Guardiola ‘weighs up’ shock move for SPFL star
Man City ‘would be willing to make Rodrygo one of the highest-paid footballers in the world’ as they look to get a deal over the line.
Real Madrid, for their part, are interested in Rodri with president Florentino Perez ‘already working on the new galactico’ for next summer.
Perez feels that the Spain international is ‘the missing link in a team that, despite its strength, needs an anchor in midfield’ with Real Madrid seeing him as a similar signing to Toni Kroos ‘in his day’.
The report adds:
‘Signing Rodri would be, as well as a sporting coup, a response to that criticism, giving the white fans back the illusion of seeing a Spanish player leading the Madrid midfield.’
Real Madrid’s ‘plan is clear’ with Perez looking to ‘pay €100 million (£85m) for Rodri next summer, with the 2025/26 season in mind’ and the Man City midfielder ‘could be open to a return to Spain’.
Guardiola’s contract expires at the end of the season with the Catalan linked to the England job – but Joleon Lescott is confident Man City will be prepared for his possible departure.
Lescott said: “We can’t say for certain if Pep Guardiola will move on at the end of the season, though it does look more likely than not that he will.
“Given the things he’s achieved at the club it’s pretty natural there is going to be a drop-off but I think the thing that is most worrying is how similar changes have affected the other big clubs.
“You just have to look at what happened to Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson left or to Arsenal when Arsene Wenger moved on to see how hard it can be to keep things like they were before.
“However, I do think City will be much better prepared for the change than those clubs were.
“They’ll recognise the drop-off that happened and have plans in place to make sure the change doesn’t have the detrimental impact that it did with some of the other sides.
“They’ll know it won’t be easy to maintain the level Pep has set but they’ll be doing everything they can to make sure that whoever does replace him is able to keep standards as high as possible.”
