Pep Guardiola’s shock move for veteran alternative to Rodri Hernandez revealed | OneFootball

Manchester City are enduring by far their toughest season since the arrival of Pep Guardiola, and arguably since Roberto Mancini took charge. Their spiral kicked off with the cruciate ligament injury to Rodri Hernandez, with the Ballon d’Or winner ruled out for the rest of the season in all likelihood.

Former Real Madrid and Chelsea man Mateo Kovacic has been doing his best impression of the Spain international, and despite spending big in the January transfer window, City have not brought in a replacement for Rodri. Linked to Bruno Guimaraes and Martin Zubimendi, both were ruled out as potential options in the winter transfer window.

However Guardiola did try to move for a replacement – and secured the green light from the player. Sport have revealed that shortly after Rodri’s injury, Guardiola personally called former Barcelona star and Inter Miami midfielder Sergio Busquets to see if he would be interested in coming in for the rest of the season.

Initially, Busquets agreed to do so, but after contemplating the idea for a while, decided against the move, continuing with Inter Miami. Since, City have spent big on Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Omar Marmoush, and have been linked to the likes of Ederson dos Santos at Atalanta or Douglas Luiz at Juventus.

Busquets, now 36, has been in Miami for the past 18 months since leaving Barcelona as captain. Rodri was ultimately the player to take the reins from Busquets for Spain, and help lead them to Euro 2024 glory. While Busquets was struggling to defend large spaces by the end of the Barcelona era, he still possessed a razor sharp mind, and his ability on the ball was evident in its absence for the Blaugrana last year. It certainly would have been fascinating to see him in the Premier League, even past his peak.