Rodri and Kalvin Phillips are Manchester City’s first and second-choice defensive-midfielders, but Pep Guardiola may be looking to the future if reports from Italy are to be believed.
TuttoMercatoWeb say the Sky Blues are ‘closely following’ Nicolo Rovella and had been monitoring his progress at Monza. The 20-year-old is a Juventus player currently out on loan, but his future is uncertain due to the interest in his signature.
Rovella has made 10 Serie A appearances for Monza this season, boasting more tackles per game on average (1.7) than Manuel Akanji, more interceptions (2) than Rodri (1.2) more chances created (1.4) than Erling Haaland (1.1) and has completed more passes (65.1) than Bernardo Silva (48.2) and Kevin De Bruyne (43.5), so he would improve the City squad.
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Time will tell if the Sky Blues have a chance of signing him, however, as Rovella has four years remaining on his deal in Turin and is highly rated at the Old Lady.
Juventus spent €26m (£22.4m) to sign the Italian U21 international from Genoa just last year too, so he’d cost a tidy sum in January or next summer. The Old Lady might just want to keep him too, so any pursuit of Rovella could fall flat.
In other news, report reveals how Man City deal with Pep Guardiola was agreed
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