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Rodri is reportedly a target for Real Madrid | Getty Images
Real Madrid could make a move for Rodri in the summer transfer window - so what should Manchester City do?
Just 18 months ago, Rodri won the Ballon d’Or, and was rightly named as the finest player in world football for the crucial role he played in Manchester City’s treble win. Now, just a couple of seasons later, the Spaniard could be up for sale.
Numerous press reports suggest that Real Madrid could come knocking, and Manchester City may have a massive decision to make in the coming months. Do they hold on to a midfielder who inspired them to their greatest achievements? Or do they sell a player who has spent the past two years labouring his way through serious injuries?
Should Manchester City sell Rodri this summer?
At his best, before serious knee and hamstring injuries condemned him to spend much of the past two seasons bound to the bench, Rodri was Manchester City’s beating heart – not just a brilliant player in his own right, but the tactical centrifuge around which Pep Guardiola’s system swirled.
Few midfielders in football’s history have hit the heights Rodri reached in the 2023/24 season. He was a rock solid defensive shield, a swashbuckling playmaker and a serious threat in the final third in his own right. A truly complete player. Now, however, he cuts a rather diminished figure.
Since rupturing his ACL in September 2024, Rodri has played just 32 games, and his output has tailed off. He is making fewer tackles, forcing fewer turnovers, completing fewer passes and getting on the ball less often than he did in 2023/24. More tellingly, perhaps, he has become far less influential in the opposing half – in all competitions this season, he has scored twice and failed to provide a single assist.
Not only have fitness issues seemingly hobbled a player who will turn 30 before the start of next season, but he is no longer the focal point of Guardiola’s tactical set-up. Manchester City have become increasingly direct, playing to the strengths of Erling Haaland and their younger, faster wingers.
As such, there are two debates in play: Firstly, whether Rodri will ever be able to get back to his best; and secondly, whether City truly need a player like Rodri any more given the way that they play.
The former question is a matter of guesswork. Perhaps if he remains fit for the rest of the campaign and is able to recuperate over the off-season (a hope made more distant by his likely involvement in Spain’s World Cup campaign), he will be able to start next season refreshed, reinvigorated and to continue as if the last two years had never happened. Or perhaps the scars will be permanent. City will have medical reports to base a decision on, but there can be no certainty.
The latter debate comes down to whether Guardiola believes that Rodri is as reliable as a strictly defensive midfielder as he once was. There has been undeniable statistical regression, but his numbers in that department remain comfortably above average for the Premier League – but there have also been more mistakes in there, too. Sofascore already attribute as many errors leading to shots for the opposing team to Rodri in the top flight as he was responsible for in the entire 2023/24 season, despite playing far less frequently. That’s a subjective statistic, of course, but a worrying marker nonetheless.
Of course, even the few midfielders who are better in a strictly defensive role tend to lack Rodri’s technique, vision and command of possession. Even in a system which demands less flair and forward-thinking football from Rodri, those qualities will be beneficial if he can bring them to bear consistently. But given his steadily increasing age and the injury problems he has had to handle, it’s perfectly reasonable to query whether he can.
The modern Manchester City are not a team that tend to be sentimental with their transfer decision, and Rodri would not be the first high-profile player to be sold while still within what should theoretically be their prime years. This is a team that would rather risk moving on a little prematurely than to watch a great player decay in their own squad.
That doesn’t mean that Rodri will face the same fate, but it would scarcely be an overwhelming surprise if they listened to offers this summer. But how likely is it that Real Madrid finally follow through on their long-standing interest?
Will Real Madrid bid for Rodri in the summer transfer window?
Manchester City will only have a decision to make if they have a bidder – and Real Madrid are the only team to have been routinely linked with Rodri over the past few months, and indeed years.
That Real have coveted Rodri for some time is no secret, and they look likely to have a midfield vacancy to fill this summer too. Eduardo Camavinga is increasingly being linked with a move away having failed to truly nail down a starting spot at the Bernabeu over the past few seasons, and that would create space for Rodri on their squad.
The amount that Real might offer is unclear. Speculation from outlets such as Football Insider sets the bidding at around £50m, but that remains conjecture, and perhaps a optimistic figure given that Rodri’s contract expires at the end of next season. A couple of years ago, he would have been priceless, but that is no longer the case.
What’s even less clear is whether they will actually make a bid at all. While the stories connecting Real with a bid are extremely pervasive, Madridista newspaper Marca reported on Monday that club president Florentino Pérez was rather more interested in making a move for Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández instead, going as far as to suggest that there was “no chance” that Rodri would move to the Bernabeu in the coming months.
That claim flies in the face of the majority of stories, but if Real are prepared to spend the money to contend seriously for Fernández (or indeed Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, another potential target) then they may well be rather more likely to buy a younger, fitter, ascending player rather than a potentially waning great. Real themselves would have to be convinced that Rodri was still capable of playing his best football for years to come.
Rodri himself seems open to the move. Although he backtracked quickly, admitted in a recent interview that he “would like to come back” to Spain before the end of his career, and when asked about Real’s alleged interest, simply said that “you can't turn down the best clubs in the world.” Not quite a come-and-get-me plea, perhaps, but hardly the closing of a door which he may have good reason to believe is being left ajar.
It’s perfectly possible that Real take that chance if Chelsea hold firm on Fernández, and that Manchester City are equally ready to let a once crucial player leave as his contract winds down – but as it stands, there are no guarantees that City will even have a decision to make, save for whether to offer Rodri a new contract before his current deal expires. It will be fascinating to see which direction they take with a player whose ceiling is proving frustratingly out of reach.
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