£300m later, City still don’t have a Rodri
Three signings. One vacancy. Manchester City spent close to 300 million pounds this summer on Elliot Anderson, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Enzo Fernandez, and not one of them does the job Rodri used to do. The Spaniard is a Barcelona player now. Two of the men brought in to cover for him sit inside the four most expensive deals an English club has ever completed.
The rest of the squad emptied out around the same time. Pep Guardiola walked away. Bernardo Silva and John Stones left on free transfers. Savio, Tijjani Reijnders, Nico Gonzalez, James Trafford and Omar Marmoush were all sold, most of them for serious money. Enzo Maresca took the job and inherited a rebuild he never asked for.
City already know what life without Rodri looks like. He tore a cruciate ligament early in 2024-25 and missed most of the season. They finished outside the top two for the first time since 2016-17, straight after four titles in a row. The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner still ended last season top of the Premier League for completed passes per 90 minutes, with 86.7. That is the hole they are trying to fill.
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£125m for a midfielder who finished 10th
Chelsea finished sixth, then fourth, then 10th with Enzo Fernandez in the side. His trophy return from that spell reads Conference League and Club World Cup. City paid 125 million pounds anyway, and the data explains the decision better than the league table does.
The Argentina midfielder ranked third in the Premier League for expected assists excluding crosses last season with 6.0, behind only Bruno Fernandes and Rayan Cherki. His 7.3 xA put him fourth in the division. He finished with four actual assists. That gap between what he created and what his teammates converted is the entire case for the fee.
He also led the league for passes leading to a shot assist with six, sat second for line-breaking passes that create a chance with 19, and played 49 line-breaking passes into the box.
Then there is the running. Fernandez covered 20 kilometres in high-intensity runs while his team had the ball, a total only Adrien Truffert beat. He made 376 runs into the final third and 116 runs asking for a cross. Cherki managed 47.
Anderson recovered 306 balls. Nobody came close.
Anderson gets the unglamorous half of the job. He won the ball back 306 times last season, 94 more than any other player in the division. The plan appears to be simple enough: Anderson sweeps up, Fernandez starts deeper than he did at Chelsea and arrives in the box late.
Bouaddi is the one who actually resembles Rodri. He is 18. He cost more than 80 million pounds on the back of a strong World Cup with Morocco, and he is nowhere near ready to carry a title race.
So City have not replaced Rodri at all. They have built something else, expensively, and the Etihad will find out soon enough whether it holds together.
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