Man City to rescue Rodri replacement from dumpster fire

Hello, and welcome to the weekly rumour roundup.

Today I saw the utterly batshit headline “EXCLUSIVE: Man City scouts identify €100M Rodri replacement,” and I have to say, their clickbait tricks worked spectacularly on me. If you’d like to just know who they’re talking about without clicking on that, I’ll just tell you: Valencia midfielder Pepelu.

Given that Pepelu is already 26 and Valencia is a club that is notably struggling both on the pitch and financially, I can’t imagine they’re actually in a negotiating position to get a €100m fee for him. That is, however, his release clause, something every player in Spain is legally mandated to have in their contract. Teams negotiate fees lower than written release clauses all the time, and Valencia would do very well to get half that.

Pepelu looks like a very good deep-lying midfielder on his face, devoid of any context. He’s performing better this year than he did last, with a similar-looking profile. My first thought was: I’m not sure if this is a Man City-quality player or Rodri replacement, but he’s certainly a good player.

But, I also thought, isn’t Valencia very bad? Those numbers are kind of sick for someone on a team in 19th place in La Liga.

As it turns out, Valencia are actually much worse than I initially suspected. Their attack is an affront to the sport of football, and perhaps even God.

This season, Pepelu has completed 63 passes from open play that start outside the final third and end inside the final third. There isn’t another player on his team with more than 30, and he’s responsible for 18% of the team’s successful final third entries by himself. Valencia’s second best player by Pass OBV behind Pepelu is Liverpool-bound goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. It’s a one-man midfield over there.

All of this is to say, if City’s scouting department has determined that Pepelu has the skills to slot into their team and replace Rodri’s passing output, I would be inclined to believe them. His departure from Valencia would also lead to almost certain relegation, so that’ll be a fun negotiation.

Other news and transfer rumours

• Barcelona will need to shed some additional salary to be able to register Dani Olmo in January, after getting away with using an injury cap relief loophole to start the season. They could achieve this by getting rid of Frenkie de Jong, who might finally accept Barca isn’t the place for him with 6 months left on his contract.
  
  Frenkie has a statistical profile and highlight tape that pops, but frustrates everyone by bottling it in the biggest moments. He’s better than you think, but no one will care until he wins something. What I’m saying is that he is spiritually a perfect player for Tottenham Hotspur.

• A player that reporters are saying Tottenham are looking into, rather than a rumour I just completely made up, is Lecce left-footed utility man Patrick Dorgu. The 20-year-old Dane does not have stats that pop, but a lot of that can be attributed to switching between fullback and winger all the time. This seems like a player better suited to a back 3 team (Man United? Leverkusen?) than Spurs, but perhaps Ange wants to go Full Yolo.

• Alphonso Davies, as indicated in the summer, would rather leave Bayern than re-sign. Also as indicated in the summer, he has an offer from Real Madrid. But he’s also apparently willing to listen to one from Manchester United. Someone’s going to end up paying a bonkers agent fee.

• Victor Osimhen would like to sign for Juventus, and apparently they’d like to sign him. The main issue there is obviously the finances, which is a problem that could be rectified by…

• Selling Dusan Vlahovic. All of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are interested, or at least that is what his agent would like the world to think. His numbers are a real chicken and the egg riddle: Does Juve’s attack stink because their striker makes awful decisions, or does Vlahovic have stinky OBV numbers because of the team he’s playing in?

• The Mirror claims that Mikel Arteta has DEMANDED the signing of Nico Williams. As if Arteta is going to quit if he doesn’t get his man this January. I love clickbait headline language. In any event, Athletic Bilbao won’t sell for a penny less than his €58m release clause, and it might be tough to get him to agree to leave his brother high and dry in a race for a Champions League place mid-season.

• Manchester United might agree to sell one of their crap players who makes too much money if someone asks really nicely.

• Michail Antonio is out for an extended period of time after breaking his leg in a traffic accident, so West Ham are shopping for strikers. One they’re going after that makes perfect sense is Brighton youngster Evan Ferguson, who would like more playing time. A heavily incentive-based loan-to-buy would probably suit all parties well, but Brighton are expert sellers and West Ham are expert overpayers, so this could get funny.

• With AC Milan struggling and a lot of their top players probably about to start losing their peak value, they’re being linked to a lot of potential sales this January. Rafael Leão and Théo Hernandez, especially. As someone who enjoys watching both players, I think they could use a change of scenery. But thinking about them from a buying club perspective, €50m+ is a lot of money for players who are wildly inconsistent, with big highs and lows.
  
  Whatever, just pull the 57th lever, Barca.

—KM

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