Manchester City Face Life Without Rodri: Alexis Mac Allister on Their Radar
Manchester City are staring at the unthinkable: life without Rodri.
With the Spaniard edging towards a move to Barcelona and a £55 million deal said to be in its final stages, the Premier League champions are working through a scenario they have barely had to contemplate in recent years – how to replace the most influential holding midfielder in world football.
And in that search, a surprise name has landed on the Etihad shortlist: Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister.
Life after Rodri
For Enzo Maresca, this is the defining early test of his reign. Rodri has been City’s metronome, shield and safety net rolled into one. Take him out of the side and the entire structure of the team changes. City know it, the rest of the league knows it.
That is why the club’s recruitment department has been operating at full tilt all summer. Elliot Anderson has already arrived in a £116m deal, a bold, expensive bet on potential. Talks with Lille for 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi are active, with personal terms already agreed with the Moroccan prospect.
Exciting, yes. Enough on their own? No.
Inside the club, there is a clear recognition that raw talent will not be sufficient to replace Rodri’s authority and calm in the middle of the pitch. City want experience. They want someone who understands the tempo of the Premier League and can walk straight into a title-chasing dressing room without blinking.
That is where Mac Allister comes in.
Mac Allister on the radar
The Argentine is approaching the final two years of his contract at Anfield. Since joining from Brighton in 2023, he has been a regular in Liverpool’s starting XI, a trusted figure in a midfield that has gone through major surgery.
His form last season mirrored Liverpool’s campaign: strong spells, dips in rhythm, questions asked as the team tailed off and finished fifth. At times, he faced calls to be dropped. Yet inside the game, his reputation has barely shifted.
Mac Allister remains viewed as a high-level tactical operator. He was central to Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph and a key cog in Liverpool’s title-winning 2024/25 season, knitting play, reading danger and offering the kind of positional intelligence that coaches obsess over.
For City, that profile is gold. A proven Premier League midfielder, technically secure, tactically disciplined, and already familiar with the demands of a possession-heavy, front-foot side. In theory, he is the kind of player who could adapt quickly to Maresca’s intricate positional play.
Transfer journalist Ben Jacobs lifted the lid on how far things have gone internally.
“I know internally Alexis McAllister has been mentioned, but there's been no contact yet, or developments with Liverpool. So that's just more part of a shortlisting process than anything to get excited about,” he told talkSPORT.
So the interest is real. The move? Not yet.
Maresca’s wishlist and City’s reality
Mac Allister is not the only name under discussion.
Maresca, newly installed and already shaping the squad in his image, is understood to be an admirer of Enzo Fernandez, whom he worked with at Chelsea. Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton has also been floated as a potential solution, another young English midfielder whose stock has soared.
The problem is obvious: price.
Top-tier midfielders are carrying eye-watering valuations, and Fernandez in particular would command a fee that even City’s hierarchy views as prohibitive. Jacobs underlined that tension.
“Some people have mentioned Adam Wharton to me as well. So possibly in a perfect world, if Maresca had his say, he might choose to move for Enzo Fernandez. We can't entirely discount it, but the price is a massive stumbling block. And at the moment, City's focus is on trying to get Bouaddi over the line,” he said.
That line is telling. City are trying to balance long-term planning with immediate needs. Bouaddi represents the future. Rodri’s departure demands a solution for the present.
Liverpool’s dilemma
On Merseyside, the idea of Mac Allister in sky blue will not go down well.
He was one of Liverpool’s standout performers during their last title-winning campaign, scoring five league goals from midfield and earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year. He became a symbol of their rebuild, a player who could set the rhythm and handle the pressure of big moments.
Even during Liverpool’s recent slump to fifth, his underlying numbers and tactical output kept scouts and analysts across the league interested. He reads the game, presses intelligently, and can operate as both creator and anchor. Those traits do not go out of fashion.
Selling a player like that is one thing. Selling him to Manchester City is another entirely.
Any bid from the Etihad would force Liverpool’s hierarchy into an uncomfortable position. Do they cash in on a valuable asset with two years left on his deal, or do they shut the door on a direct rival, even if the offer is enormous?
Right now, that decision remains hypothetical. City have not yet made contact. Mac Allister is only on a list, one name among several.
But lists have a way of turning into bids when pressure builds. And when Rodri finally walks out of the Etihad for the last time, the question will land on City’s desk with full force: trust youth, break the bank, or try to prise a World Cup winner out of Anfield and into the heart of their midfield?
