{"id":1125227,"date":"2026-08-02T03:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125227\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T03:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:09:18","slug":"manchester-city-warned-summer-transfer-will-cost-them-the-premier-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125227\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City warned summer transfer will cost them the Premier League title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City would rule themselves out of the Premier League title race this season by letting Rodri leave.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s according to talkSPORT host Adam Catterall, as Ashley Williams labelled the midfielder as the world&#8217;s best player.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rodri for Manchester City.\" height=\"676\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2025-26-league-phase-md1-1025116773.jpg\" data-caption=\"Rodri could be on his way to Madrid this summer\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2025-26-league-phase-md1-1025116773.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>Rodri could be on his way to Madrid this summerCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>talkSPORT understands that <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/sport\/football\/team\/113141\/real-madrid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Real Madrid<\/a> have <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/4477815\/rodri-real-madrid-transfer-rumour-man-city\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opened talks with City<\/a> to sign Rodri this summer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/sport\/football\/team\/113098\/manchester-city\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">City<\/a> want to keep the midfielder for the upcoming season, even if he doesn&#8217;t sign a new deal at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>However, with one year left on his current contract in Manchester, it&#8217;s understood that <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/who\/rodri\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rodri<\/a> wants to move to Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>If Lille star Ayyoub Bouaddi was to <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/4479632\/manchester-city-ayyoub-bouaddi-talks-lille-transfer-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sign for City<\/a>, then they could well be more inclined to sanction an exit for the 2024 Ballon d&#8217;Or winner.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE ON FOOTBALL<\/p>\n<p>Rodri would still be a massive miss, so much so that Catterall believes his absence will damage City&#8217;s hopes of winning the title.<\/p>\n<p>Hot Rod<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of chat about Rodri, at the moment, off the back of his fantastic World Cup (with Spain),&#8221; he said on Saturday Session. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know that off the back of his injury last year, he wasn&#8217;t at his scintillating best, but the World Cup kind of pointed in the direction that the Ballon d&#8217;Or winner is back to his very, very best. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I genuinely believe that if he does go to Real Madrid in this window, that will scupper any chances that Manchester City have of winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/premier-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s that influential. He has to be at City, if City are going to make a Premier League challenge this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Catterall then asked: &#8220;Am I going too far with that? Can one player be that influential in a team?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rodri of Manchester City plays a pass during the Emirates FA Cup Final match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, May 2026.\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rodri-manchester-city-emirates-fa-1081422235.jpg\" data-caption=\"City have been warned that without Rodri, they will not win the title\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rodri-manchester-city-emirates-fa-1081422235.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>City have been warned that without Rodri, they will not win the titleCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>Former Premier League defender <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/who\/ashley-williams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Williams<\/a> answered yes to the latter question, and said: &#8220;If it&#8217;s him&#8230; the best player in the world right now, Rodri. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My concern is that they&#8217;ve brought in Elliot Anderson and think, &#8216;We can probably live without Rodri&#8217;, they can&#8217;t, I think they need both of them. I love Elliot Anderson, I think he&#8217;s brilliant, he&#8217;ll be the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But wouldn&#8217;t it be great for him to have all that he&#8217;s got already and learn off Rodri with the way he plays? And have both of them at least overlapping for a couple of seasons. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At no point would you ever, ever get rid of Rodri, for no amount of money. They could offer me whatever and I wouldn&#8217;t sell Rodri.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What has been said on Rodri?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ahead of his first season as City manager, Enzo Maresca has had to deal with an uncertain future over one of his key players.<\/p>\n<p>However, when asked about the latest information he could give on the 30-year-old, he said It&#8217;s just speculation at this moment.<\/p>\n<p>Read More on talkSPORT<a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca.\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/head-coach-enzo-maresca-manchester-1098865034.jpg\" data-caption=\"Maresca faces a wait to see if he will have to do without Rodri this season\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/head-coach-enzo-maresca-manchester-1098865034.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>Maresca faces a wait to see if he will have to do without Rodri this seasonCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rodri had the (minor back) surgery last Monday, everything was fine,&#8221; Maresca said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now some days off, and then back with us when he finishes his holiday.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City would rule themselves out of the Premier League title race this season by letting Rodri leave.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1125228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[306186,306187,748,393,1367,4884,2465,886,544,35250,306185,52083,100,16,15],"class_list":["post-1125227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-adam-catterall","tag-ashley-williams","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-enzo-maresca","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-real-madrid","tag-rodri","tag-saturday-session","tag-talksport","tag-transfer-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117023720568322018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1125228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}