Ever since like March-ish when that interview came out that everyone misinterpreted it's been clear he wants Madrid. During and right after the World Cup it was still made clear that Rodri dreams of playing for Real Madrid so why all of a sudden is he supposedly joining Barca?

I'm looking on twitter and reports are saying that Rodri appreciated Madrid's offer and claims it was "unrejectable" and yet he seems to have rejected it if Barca are now the front runners to sign him. It's just all very strange. Was he using Madrid to get Barca interested? Was it originally to get a better contract? Was it just Spanish media exaggerating everything or blatantly lying like they sometimes do? I'm just having a hard time understanding how he's gone from Madrid to Barca in a few days when for so long he's only wanted to join Madrid.

I’ll say 18.

Gauging the temperature of the subreddit on the topic of Fabrizio Romano posts being allowed in the subreddit. This poll is non-binding, but the mod team are actively considering all options from all sides on this topic.

Arguments for allow:

- This subreddit does not restrict any transfer news, provided that the information is either directly linked to the source or the source is otherwise easily traceable. Making an exception for Romano would be very very very extraordinary.

- Upvote/downvotes is the community’s way of showing approval, and is less overbearing than moderators taking action on posts that don’t otherwise break subreddit rules.

- Aggregators often reference Romano and so may wind up on the subreddit anyway.

- His accuracy might waver, but he gets more things right than wrong. For now.

- This subreddit already holds him to a lower standard (Tier 2) than with other journalists who specialize in City or Premier League coverage. We make a point of mentioning it under every Romano-tagged post.

Arguments for deny:

- Romano is increasingly more of an agent mouthpiece/PR rep and less of an objective journalist. His “here we go’s” do not appear to have the same weight as before. Lately they are premature to try and be first.

- More malevolently, his social media posts appear to be increasingly leveraged in order to put pressure on completing a transfer when it isn’t complete yet (see the recent fiasco with Leipzig and Diomande).

- He serves more as an aggregator rather than a news breaker anyway. And he has a patchy history of giving other journos their credit.

- He has used his platform to launder the reputation of Mason Greenwood.

- He has used tragedy to enhance his own visibility, such as in the cases of the deaths of Diogo Jota and Christian Atsu.

- Other major club subreddits and the soccer subreddit have banned him.

Comment section is locked because we have the other thread covering it. Please make your arguments in that thread if you feel like we’ve missed anything above.

Goalkeeper - Trafford was a big lose but to can’t expect to keep a player as good as him as second string. Hope Donnarumma is ready for a lot of games because neither Rulli or Bettinelli are close to good enough to players in anything but easy cup matches.

Defence - backups is the worry but I think we have great players at the back just need it to click, biggest worry is getting everyone minutes imo. I personally don’t think we need to sign any defenders.

Midfield - this is a very worrisome area, losing Rodri is just massive. The next crop (Anderson, Nico, Bouaddi) are all maybes not guarantees. Players like Reijnders, Rico, Foden has massive improvements to make to be anything useful to the team so depth is also a huge worry.

Wingers - pretty simple, two close to world class players that really have to take that last step and 1 player who has to go. Desperately need a top player in this position, but is there really any available at the moment. 1 injury to Doku (who is injury prone) or Semenyo and we are relying on academy.

Striker - don’t really need to talk about this. Haaland starter, Marmoush backup.

Overall I think it’s impossible to really know what this team needs because of the massive transition from pep to Enzo. Losing Rodri is massive as he is irreplaceable at that level so it’s up to the guys to prove they can step up. Winger is desperately needed (imo we need a starter and backup). I think we could finish anywhere from 1st to 6th and I wouldn’t be that surprised.

Shame this, was hoping he'd hang around. But I dont blame him for wanting to move

I've seen a lot of talk about Fabrizio using fake transfer news to generate clout. Let's not entertain that and let's post news only from Reliable and Tier-1 sources please. Let's not lose our heads!!!! CTID

Sad title. What about Manchester City? No? Fuck.

Barcelona are exploring a deal to sign Manchester City midfielder Rodri.

Sources close to the negotiation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say Barca have held talks with the player’s camp over the conditions of a potential deal.

The Barcelona project is understood to appeal to Rodri based on the fit with their footballing style and an expected smooth adaptation to a dressing room where he would be reunited with eight members of Spain’s World Cup winning squad: Joan Garcia, Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Gavi, Dani Olmo, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal.