Manchester City Target Ayyoub Bouaddi as Rodri Faces Barcelona Interest
Manchester City are closing in on Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi in a move that could trigger one of the summer’s most dramatic midfield reshuffles – and clear the runway for Rodri to walk into Barcelona.
City have reached agreement on personal terms with the 18-year-old, but are still haggling with Lille, who value the Morocco international at around €100m (£85m). The fee is huge for a teenager, but City’s new manager, Enzo Maresca, does not see Bouaddi as a project. He wants him in the first-team squad now.
There is no gentle bedding-in period planned. City face Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday, then open their Premier League campaign against Bournemouth on 23 August. Maresca wants his new midfield structure in place before the real business starts.
If City can close the Bouaddi deal, the dominoes start to fall.
Rodri on Barcelona’s radar
Barcelona are increasingly confident they can prise Rodri away from Manchester, even after their opening bid of €45m was knocked back last week. That offer never came close to City’s valuation, but it signalled intent.
Barça know they will have to come again with more money. The plan is straightforward: sell Ferran Torres, who is attracting interest from Paris Saint-Germain, and use those funds to go hard for Rodri.
Inside City, there is a sense of acceptance. The 30-year-old has only a year left on his contract and the club are close to being resigned to his departure. Once Bouaddi walks through the door, that feeling is likely to harden. A new midfield era is being built, and sentiment rarely survives those moments.
Bouaddi would join Elliot Anderson, the £116m signing from Nottingham Forest last month, in what is rapidly becoming a very different-looking engine room. Bernardo Silva’s experience has already gone. Maresca is gambling on youth, energy and high ceilings rather than familiarity.
United move on Page as Rashford returns
Across town, Manchester United are working on their own piece of midfield succession planning.
The club are pushing to sign Leicester teenager Louis Page, with Arsenal also in the race. United believe they have an edge: Page is thought to favour a move to Old Trafford, and the club are hopeful that preference will translate into a deal.
United’s squad, meanwhile, has been joined by a familiar face. Marcus Rashford has linked up with the team at their County Kildare training camp after his post-World Cup break, stepping back into a dressing room where his status has been anything but straightforward.
The 28-year-old has spent the last season and a half away from United, on loan at Barcelona and Aston Villa, after a breakdown in his relationship with a club executive and former head coach Ruben Amorim. That rift pushed him to the fringes and then out of the door.
Now, the temperature has dropped. Relations have eased and Rashford is focused on working under Michael Carrick, who is trying to reassert control and clarity over a squad that has known too much turbulence.
Yet the uncertainty has not vanished. Rashford could still leave before the end of the window. United’s midfield is being reshaped, their attack remains in flux, and the market is moving fast.
City preparing to hand the keys to Bouaddi. Barcelona circling for Rodri. United chasing Page while weighing up Rashford’s future.
The season has not even started, and the centre of the pitch is already the most volatile territory in English football.
