Manchester City Target Alexis Mac Allister as Rodri Successor

Manchester City are bracing for life after Rodri – and the search for his successor has taken a surprise twist, with Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister emerging on their internal shortlist.

According to talkSPORT, City are preparing for the departure of their midfield heartbeat, with Rodri close to sealing a move to Barcelona. The World Cup-winning Spaniard is understood to be in the advanced stages of a switch to Camp Nou, where a £55 million package is expected to be finalised in the coming days.

For Enzo Maresca, it is the toughest possible start to his tenure. Rip out the fulcrum of this City side, and you do not just lose a player; you lose the rhythm, the security, the entire reference point of their structure. Replacing that has dominated City’s summer thinking.

They have already spent big. Elliot Anderson arrived early in the window for a hefty £116m fee, a statement of intent and a nod to the future. Talks with Lille over highly rated teenager Ayyoub Bouaddi are also ongoing, with personal terms already agreed with the Moroccan prospect.

City, though, know raw talent is not enough. Not when Rodri walks out of the building.

Inside the recruitment meetings, the consensus is clear: they need experience in the middle of the pitch, someone who can absorb Maresca’s intricate positional demands and deliver from day one. That is where Mac Allister’s name has entered the conversation.

The Argentine is approaching the final two years of his Liverpool contract. Since arriving from Brighton in 2023, he has been a regular in the Reds’ starting XI, a trusted part of the spine even as Liverpool’s form lurched through a turbulent campaign last season.

His performances dipped at times as the team struggled, and he did not escape criticism during the run-in that ended with Liverpool slumping to fifth. There were calls for him to be dropped. Yet inside the game, his reputation as a tactical organiser and technical anchor remains strong.

This is a player who started in a World Cup-winning midfield for Argentina in 2022 and then helped drive Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2024/25, scoring five goals from midfield and earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year. Those numbers matter to scouts and analysts; so does his ability to interpret space, press intelligently and knit phases of play together.

For City, that profile is gold. A proven Premier League performer, already versed in high-intensity, possession-heavy football, and theoretically capable of sliding into Maresca’s structure with minimal adaptation.

Transfer expert Ben Jacobs offered an insight into the current state of play inside the Etihad hierarchy.

“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, this is not a bid. It is a name on a board, a serious option in a narrowing market.

Maresca’s wish list does not stop there. The Italian is understood to be an admirer of Enzo Fernandez, whom he worked with at Chelsea, while Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton has also been floated as a possible target.

Jacobs explained how those preferences collide with financial reality.

“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,” he added.

That is the tension at City right now: long-term projects like Bouaddi versus the immediate need to replace an irreplaceable figure. The market for elite, press-resistant midfield generals is brutal, and every club knows it.

Liverpool, for their part, would be staring at a nightmare scenario. Losing one of their primary midfielders is difficult enough; losing him to a direct title rival is something else entirely. Mac Allister was central to their most recent title win, a metronome in and out of possession and a key figure in their tactical structure.

Even as last season unravelled and criticism grew, his underlying metrics and tactical intelligence continued to impress scouts across the league. Ball recoveries, progressive passes, positional discipline – the building blocks of a modern No. 6 or hybrid playmaker – all remained at a high level.

That is exactly why City are talking about him.

Whether Liverpool would even pick up the phone is another matter. The Anfield hierarchy have shown before that they will sell on their own terms, and very rarely to those who threaten their ambitions at the top of the table.

City can draw up all the contingency plans they like. The real question is whether they can prise a World Cup winner and recent title cornerstone out of Anfield at the very moment they need him most.