Man City Rejects Barcelona's £55m Rodri Bid

Manchester City have turned down a fresh £55m offer from Barcelona for Rodri, sending a clear message to the Spanish giants that their midfield linchpin will not come cheap.

Barca saw an opening bid of around £40m rejected last week. They came back stronger, as expected, raising the proposal into the £50m–£60m bracket. It still fell short. City want upwards of £60m for the 30-year-old, who is now into the final year of his contract.

The Catalan club remain intent on prising him away and are weighing up their next move. This is not a casual enquiry; it’s a pursuit.

City’s stance, though, is equally firm. Throughout the summer, the Premier League champions have been clear: they do not want to sell Spain’s World Cup-winning captain and are pushing to agree a new deal. Rodri is central to how they play, central to how they win.

There is one caveat. If Rodri formally asks to leave, City are not expected to block the move. For now, talks between the clubs continue in the background, with the valuation gap still to be bridged.

Reijnders talks with Al Qadsiah gather pace

While Rodri dominates the headlines, another City midfielder could be heading for the exit.

The club are in advanced and positive discussions with Saudi Arabian side Al Qadsiah over the sale of Tijjani Reijnders. The proposed package is worth around £51.3m (€60m), underlining how highly the Saudi club rate the Dutchman.

Inside Qadsiah, Reijnders is viewed as a world-class, peak-age signing, a statement addition as they gear up for their first Asian Champions League campaign and prepare to move into the new Aramco Stadium. They want a midfield leader to anchor that next chapter; Reijnders is their pick.

If both deals were to progress, City could lose two central midfielders in the same window. That possibility has already shaped their planning.

The champions are looking at bringing in as many as two midfielders, with concrete interest in Enzo Fernandez and Ayyoub Bouaddi. How aggressively they move for either could hinge on what happens next with Rodri and Reijnders – and on whether Barcelona, or Saudi Arabia, are willing to push their offers into territory City simply cannot refuse.