Manchester City will confirm the signing of Rodri from Atletico Madrid on Monday, but will miss out on Juventus’ Cancelo, suggest the latest media reports.
The Daily Mail report that Rodri, touted to be the long-term successor to Fernandinho, will be announced in the coming days.
But the Manchester Evening News suggest that Juventus will hold firm on a fee that could prove prohibitive for Portuguese right-back Joao Cancelo.
Rodri is believed to be a top-priority signing for City this summer. It’s long been suggested that the Spanish defensive midfielder has been earmarked by Pep Guardiola, with snowballing reports over the summer suggesting that he’ll make the move to the Etihad.
Another young Spanish starlet, Marcos Llorente, was signed by Atletico from their city rivals Real and is widely expected to be Rodri’s replacement. That he’s been given Rodri’s shirt number, 14, is the strongest hint yet of the move to Man City.
The 22-year-old was signed by Diego Simeone’s side last summer for a fee of just €25m. At the same time, City were on the lookout for cover for Fernandinho but were beaten to the signatures of Fred by Manchester United and Jorginho by Chelsea.
A year later, Atletico are set to make a substantial profit, nearly tripling what they originally paid for him, when City pay Rodri’s €70million (£63m) buyout clause.
Other reports suggest that they won’t go quite so high for Cancelo from Juventus. Earlier in the week, it had been suggested a transfer to Guardiola’s side was imminent, but the latest reports suggest the Italian champions have done a U-Turn on the player due to developments elsewhere.
After selling another full-back, Leonardo Spinazzola, to fellow Serie A side Roma, Juve are in a healthy financial position and don’t need to sell any more assets. This means that only a substantial offer for Cancelo would force their hand.
After impressive spells with Valencia and Inter Milan, the former Benfica academy product became an important player for Juve last season, making 25 league appearances as they wrapped up an eighth straight league title.
It had been thought Cancelo would provide cover and competition for Kyle Walker, but the club might have to look elsewhere for another right-back now.
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