Manchester City are expecting Rodri back at the club on Friday with Barcelona yet to make an acceptable offer. The Catalan club have been encouraged that they can sign the Ballon d'Or winner but a first bid on Friday was well short of what is wanted at the Etihad.
City's asking price and Rodri's fitness
City are asking for at least £60m and unless an acceptable bid arrives by Friday then Rodri will be back in Manchester to meet Enzo Maresca and his teammates. Other players that reached the latter stages of the World Cup are reporting back earlier, although Rodri had surgery on his back and is facing a battle to be fit for the start of the season.
Transfer plans and on-pitch progress
City are looking to bring in Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille irrespective of whether Rodri leaves, and are also intent on replacing Rodri or any other midfielder that wishes to depart and can get an offer that the Blues will accept. It is set to be a hectic end to the transfer window even as City shelve plans to sign a right-back.
On the pitch, there were more signs in Seoul that things are beginning to take shape under Maresca. Antoine Semenyo set up two goals for Omar Marmoush and Savinho also threatened as wingers once again came to the fore.
"Since we started the players showed an open mind. They want to understand, they want to learn why we do things and I know that when you start and you join a new club you try to start different patterns or ideas," Maresca said after a 3-1 win over Atletico in Seoul. "I think the most important thing is that we are getting better, that the path still has huge path to improve things but I can see that what we are trying during the training sessions, we are getting better on that."
"I think you can play well but at the end the end product is the most important thing. I think the first half was a bit unfair 0-1, we created four or five clear chances but the difference first half was inside the box. We didn't score with the amount of chances we created and I just remember the goal they scored. For sure you need a player outside wide that can create some imbalance, especially when they go 1vs1."
