Manchester City Target Mac Allister as Rodri Departure Looms

Manchester City are bracing for life without Rodri. And that changes everything.

With the influential Spaniard edging towards a £55 million move to Barcelona, City’s recruitment department has shifted into emergency mode, drawing up plans to replace the man who has been the heartbeat of their midfield for years. According to talkSPORT, one name on that shortlist has raised eyebrows across the league: Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister.

Rodri’s shadow over Maresca’s new era

Enzo Maresca has barely settled into the job and already faces the kind of problem that can define a tenure. Losing Rodri is not just about replacing a holding midfielder; it is about ripping out the central pillar of City’s structure.

The club knew this might be coming. Work has been under way all summer to soften the blow. Elliot Anderson has already arrived in a £116m deal, a statement of both intent and financial muscle. City have also pushed ahead with a move for Lille’s teenage prodigy Ayyoub Bouaddi, agreeing personal terms with the Moroccan midfielder as they look to secure one of Europe’s most highly rated youngsters.

But raw talent alone will not steady a midfield that has been built around Rodri’s calm authority. Inside the club, the feeling is clear: they need experience as well as potential. That is where Mac Allister enters the conversation.

Mac Allister: from Anfield engine to Etihad target

Mac Allister is approaching the final two years of his Liverpool contract, a stage at which big decisions tend to be made on both sides. Since arriving from Brighton in 2023, he has become a regular in the Liverpool XI, trusted in different roles and often asked to hold together a midfield that fluctuated in form during a turbulent campaign.

The team faltered last season, slipping to a fifth-place finish, and Mac Allister found himself under scrutiny as the season unravelled. There were calls for him to be dropped, questions about his role, debates about whether he was being used correctly.

Strip away the noise, though, and the profile remains compelling. A World Cup winner with Argentina in 2022. A key cog in Liverpool’s 2024/25 title-winning side. A player comfortable dictating tempo, pressing intelligently, and absorbing complex tactical instructions. For City, that combination of pedigree and Premier League experience is gold.

He would not arrive as a project. He would arrive ready-made.

Transfer journalist Ben Jacobs lifted the lid on City’s thinking in conversation with talkSPORT, explaining that Mac Allister’s name has indeed been floated internally. “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 said.

So this is not a bid. Not yet. It is a conversation in a recruitment meeting, a name circled on a whiteboard as City map out the post-Rodri era.

Price tags, preferences and a crowded shortlist

Mac Allister is not the only option on that board. Maresca is understood to admire Enzo Fernandez, whom he worked with at Chelsea, and the new City boss would, in an ideal world, love to build his midfield around the Argentina international. Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton has also been linked, another rising Premier League star whose composure on the ball has caught the eye.

Reality, though, bites hard in the transfer market. Fernandez would command a huge fee, and even for City, there are lines they will not cross. “Some people have mentioned Adam Wharton to me as well. 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,” Jacobs added.

The pattern is clear. City want a blend: an elite, ready-made operator to stabilise the midfield, and a high-upside youngster to grow within it. Bouaddi fits the second category. Mac Allister, or someone like him, fits the first.

Liverpool’s dilemma: rival interest in a key figure

Any move for Mac Allister would collide with a brutal reality: Liverpool are not just another selling club, and City are not just another suitor.

Mac Allister was central to Liverpool’s title-winning push in 2024/25, contributing five goals from midfield and earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year. His numbers, his pressing output, his tactical discipline – all remain highly valued by analysts and scouts across the league, even after a season where the collective performance dipped.

Letting that calibre of midfielder join a direct title rival would be a seismic call at Anfield. The optics alone are stark. The sporting risk is even greater.

For now, there has been no contact, no negotiations, no formal approach. Just interest. Just planning. Just the kind of internal discussions that every elite club holds when a cornerstone like Rodri prepares to walk out of the door.

City will not rush. But Rodri’s departure, once confirmed, will force their hand. When that moment comes, the question will not just be who they can afford.

It will be who their rivals are willing to lose to them.