Manchester City are weighing up a move for Torino’s Samuele Ricci as they adjust to a season without Rodri after his anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The 23-year-old Ricci has been central to Torino’s surprise ascent to the top of Serie A and excelled in the holding midfield role for Italy in their 3-1 win in Paris against France this month. Although he can play in a variety of midfield positions, he is emerging as one of the best young, deep-lying playmakers around and is high on City’s list if they decide they need to make a move in January to cover Rodri’s absence going into the busiest part of the season.
Ricci would also be seen as a prudent long-term addition and, given his fee could go as high as £30m, he would not be a mere stop-gap. City have to decide whether to accelerate their summer plans because of Rodri’s injury.
Ricci is right-footed with an excellent range of passing and manipulates the ball well under pressure. At 5ft 11in he has the physical presence to survive in the Premier League and is said to tackle and block well.
Torino would be reluctant to sell mid-season, especially if they maintain their form and look likely to make the Champions League. But the lure of joining Premier League champions and, potentially, Champions League winners would probably be hard to resist for the player.
On Friday Pep Guardiola confirmed that Rodri’s season was over as a result of the injury sustained in last Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
The 28-year-old underwent surgery on his right knee on Friday morning, having been substituted early in the first half of Sunday’s game after going down under no challenge, and will now start his rehabilitation. “[There was] good surgery this morning for an ACL and some meniscus or something. Next season he will be here. This season is over,” stated Guardiola. “Unfortunately we got the worst [outcome]. At this level sometimes it unfortunately happens and we will be there to support him. Good recovery now, step by step and move forward.”
City are at Newcastle on Saturday and the manager feels sure he can find a solution for the absence of a player he described as “irreplaceable” in midweek. “What he gives us, we don’t have a similar player but the other players altogether can replace what Rodri has given since he arrived to us,” said Guardiola. “We have to do it as a team and we have to find the way to play during a lot of months without an important player. Everybody knows it.”
Guardiola was asked if a squad that contains potential replacements in Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gündogan, Bernardo Silva, Matheus Nunes, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Rico Lewis is more able to cover for Rodri than in previous years when not all of these players were available. “If we win, yeah,” he said. “If we don’t win it’s because we miss Rodri.
“There is not one day in the last years where I was not confident. Of course we are stronger with him, we are stronger with Nathan Aké and Oscar Bobb and Kevin [De Bruyne].
“We know that, we don’t want it but football happens and it is pity because it a long injury – eight or nine months. After it is not ‘you have to be ready in one month’, because when you have an ACL injury, a year after you have a lot of muscular problems for sure. That is why it is longer. I think Rodri will become his best not after just eight or nine months. We have magnificent players and we will find the solution.”
De Bruyne remains out of action with a muscular problem, Guardiola confirmed.
