Fabrizio Romano: Manchester City could still move for Chelsea star

The final days of a transfer window tend to compress football’s logic. Certainties loosen, hierarchies shift and, in the space of a few conversations, a squad can seem to belong to a different age. That is the atmosphere Fabrizio Romano described in his latest market update, a bulletin framed by urgency and velocity, “it’s going to be crazy busy for this final two weeks from today. We enter into the final two weeks of the summer transfer window. The news is coming every second”.

The headline, of course, was Barcelona. Romano’s central claim, credited here to Fabrizio Romano, was emphatic: “Rodri to Barcelona is a here we go. The deal is done”. He called it “a massive one”, and placed the move in historic terms, describing Rodri as “one of the most important players in the last 15 years of football”.

Yet within that declaration sat another thread, one that matters just as much to the shape of the market. If Rodri is leaving Manchester City, then the question is not merely what Barcelona gain, but how City respond. In Romano’s telling, one answer keeps resurfacing, Enzo Fernandez.

Romano was explicit on that point. “We will discuss also about Enzo Fernandez in the next videos. But I maintain my position from the recent videos. Manchester City are still thinking of Enzo Fernandez in midfield.” The repetition mattered, because he returned to it again and again, each time narrowing the field of doubt. “Manchester City are not giving up for Enzo Fernandez even after the deadline.”

That wording suggests a pursuit that has moved beyond broad interest into something more persistent. Romano explained the structure of the situation in simple, hard terms: “Man City know that they have to negotiate. Now there is no longer a verbal agreement on the exit.” The issue, then, is one of control. “Now it’s Chelsea deciding is Chelsea evaluating the situation.”

There is a starkness to that description. City can want, call, and press, but they cannot dictate. “It’s going to be important to understand more on this story because it’s on Chelsea to decide the price,” Romano said. That sentence provides the market reality in miniature. The player may be admired, the need may be clear, but possession still confers authority.