Manchester City Target Ayyoub Bouaddi Amid Rodri Transfer Talks
Manchester City are closing in on Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi in a move that could trigger one of the summer’s most significant midfield reshuffles – and potentially open the door for Rodri to walk straight into Barcelona’s engine room.
City have agreed personal terms with the 18-year-old, and while the clubs are still haggling over the fee, Lille are holding firm at around €100m (£85m). It is an eye-watering price for a teenager, but City’s new manager, Enzo Maresca, is not treating Bouaddi as a project. He wants him now. In his first team. In the thick of it.
Maresca is preparing for Sunday’s Community Shield against Arsenal and a Premier League opener against Bournemouth on 23 August, and he wants his midfield rebuilt quickly. Bouaddi, a Morocco international, is central to that plan.
If City get the deal over the line, it will do more than add youthful dynamism to Maresca’s options. It will also clear the way for Rodri’s departure.
Rodri and Barcelona: a deal waiting to happen
Barcelona are increasingly confident they can prise Rodri away from Manchester, but they have already been told to dig deeper. An opening offer of €45m was rejected last week, and City expect a significantly improved proposal before they even think about signing off on the sale.
Barça’s ability to push the deal through hinges on outgoings. The sale of Ferran Torres, who is attracting interest from Paris Saint-Germain, would bankroll a move for Rodri and give the Catalan club the experienced holding midfielder they have been chasing.
City, for their part, are close to acceptance. The 30-year-old has just a year left on his contract, and there is a growing sense inside the club that this is the moment to cash in rather than drift towards a free transfer. With Bouaddi lined up and a new manager keen to stamp his identity on the side, City look increasingly resigned to losing one of the pillars of their recent success.
Should Bouaddi arrive, he will slot into a remodelled midfield alongside Elliot Anderson, who joined last month from Nottingham Forest for £116m. That outlay underlines the scale of City’s reset in the middle of the pitch, a department that has already lost the experience and craft of Bernardo Silva.
Maresca is not easing his way into the job. He is tearing up and redrawing one of the best midfields in Europe.
United move for Louis Page as Rashford returns
Across Manchester, United are working on their own youth-focused rebuild. They have turned their attention to Leicester’s teenage midfielder Louis Page, with the 18-year-old now a serious target.
Arsenal are also in the frame, but United believe they have an edge: Page is thought to favour a move to Old Trafford. The club are hopeful of striking a deal, seeing him as another piece in a longer-term plan to refresh a squad that has too often lurched between short-term fixes.
While the recruitment team work on that, Marcus Rashford has quietly rejoined the footballing grind. The England forward has linked up with United’s training camp in County Kildare after his post-World Cup break, returning to a club where his future has been anything but straightforward.
The 28-year-old has spent the last season and a half away on loan at Barcelona and Aston Villa, his exile triggered by a breakdown in relations with a senior club executive and former head coach Ruben Amorim. That rift effectively pushed him out of the door.
Those tensions have now eased. Rashford is back, working under Michael Carrick and focused on the football again. His situation, though, remains delicately poised. He could yet leave before the end of the window if the right offer lands and United decide to move on.
For City, the next few weeks may define Maresca’s first season: land Bouaddi, resolve Rodri’s future, and settle a new-look midfield before the serious business starts. For United, the questions are different but just as sharp. Can they convince Page to join their project, and will Rashford truly be part of it when the window finally shuts?
