Manchester City Plans for Life After Rodri: Mac Allister a Surprise Target

Manchester City are preparing for life after Rodri. And that sentence alone would have sounded unthinkable not long ago.

Yet inside the Etihad, contingency plans are being drawn up for the departure of the Spaniard, who is edging towards a £55 million move to Barcelona, with talks understood to be in the advanced stages. The World Cup-winning midfielder, the metronome of City’s recent dominance, is close to trading Manchester for Catalonia and the Camp Nou.

Defining Early Test

For Enzo Maresca, it is the defining early test of his reign. Lose Rodri and you don’t just lose a player; you lose City’s reference point, their safety net, their organiser without the armband. No wonder the recruitment department has been working at full tilt all summer.

City have already flexed their financial muscle, landing Elliot Anderson for £116m early in the window, a deal that raised eyebrows and underlined their determination to reshape the midfield. Talks are also ongoing with Lille for 17-year-old Moroccan prospect Ayyoub Bouaddi. Personal terms with the teenager are in place, but inside the club there is a clear feeling: youth alone will not steady the ship.

Alexis Mac Allister

That is where Alexis Mac Allister enters the conversation.

The Liverpool midfielder has emerged as a surprise name on City’s shortlist, according to talkSPORT. Surprise, because he is a pillar at Anfield. Surprise, because of the political storm that would follow any deal between two title rivals. But from City’s perspective, he makes footballing sense.

Mac Allister is moving into the final two years of his Liverpool contract. Since arriving from Brighton in 2023, he has been a regular in the starting XI, asked to cover several roles in a reshaped midfield. His form mirrored Liverpool’s season: brilliant in patches, ragged in others, as the club slid to a fifth-place finish.

Yet when the stakes have been highest, his pedigree has shone through. He played a crucial role in Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph and was central to Liverpool’s title-winning 2024/25 campaign, scoring five league goals and earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year. Those numbers and honours matter in recruitment meetings. So does the fact he already understands the pace and brutality of the Premier League.

For City, Mac Allister ticks a key box: he is tactically intelligent enough to interpret complex instructions and adapt quickly. Maresca’s football demands structure, precision and bravery on the ball from the deepest midfielder. The belief at the Etihad is that the Argentine could slot into that framework with minimal transition time.

Behind the Scenes

Transfer journalist Ben Jacobs has lifted the lid on where things stand behind the scenes.

“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, for now, Mac Allister is a name on a whiteboard, not a bid in an inbox. But his inclusion on that list says plenty about the scale of City’s ambition – and the size of the hole Rodri will leave.

Market Complications

Maresca’s options are complicated by the market. The kind of midfielder who can run a title-chasing side does not come cheap, and City are already feeling the weight of inflated price tags. The new manager is known to admire Enzo Fernandez, whom he worked with at Chelsea, while Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton has also been discussed as a potential long-term solution.

“Some people have mentioned Adam Wharton to me as well,” Jacobs added. “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.”

That line is telling. City are juggling timelines: secure the future with Bouaddi, stabilise the present with a ready-made operator. Mac Allister sits firmly in that second category.

Across the M62, the idea of Liverpool even picking up the phone to discuss a sale to City feels remote. Mac Allister is one of their primary midfielders, a player who helped drive their last title charge and whose blend of work rate and guile is not easily replaced. Letting him go to a direct rival would test the resolve of any ownership group, never mind one trying to reassert itself at the top of the league.

Yes, his performances came under scrutiny late last season. As Liverpool’s form dipped and the team limped to fifth, some voices called for him to be dropped. But scouts and analysts around the division remain convinced by his underlying numbers and tactical value. They see a midfielder who reads the game, presses with intelligence, and links play between lines – qualities that rarely come cheap.

So City watch. They plan. They weigh up Fernandez, Wharton, Mac Allister and others against a budget already stretched by Anderson and the pursuit of Bouaddi.

The Rodri era at the Etihad looks to be drawing to a close. The question now is stark and unforgiving: who is brave enough, and good enough, to step into the space he leaves behind – and will Liverpool really allow their World Cup winner to be that man?