{"id":21204,"date":"2026-07-25T07:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21204"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:07:25","slug":"rodri-gives-green-light-to-galactico-switch-arsenal-scramble-for-defensive-reinforcements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21204","title":{"rendered":"Rodri gives green light to Galactico switch; Arsenal scramble for defensive reinforcements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<p><b>The transfer rumour mill rumbles on. Here are the latest rumours from around Europe&#8217;s top leagues.<\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Real Madrid are stepping up their pursuit of <b>Rodri<\/b>as the Spanish side look to make the Golden Ball winner their latest Galactico signing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The 30-year-old outlined his desire for a La Liga move earlier this year and name-checked Real Madrid as a potential destination. Sky Sports are reporting that the Madrid mission to land Rodri is gathering steam. The Manchester City midfielder, who has less than a year left on his deal, has given the green light to the transfer.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Sky Sports are also running Arsenal&#8217;s interest in England internationals <b>Ezri Konsa<\/b> and <b>John Stones.<\/b> With <b>William Saliba<\/b> stricken with a bad back and out for an &#8216;extended period&#8217;, the Gunners are looking to bring in cover. Stones is on the search for a new club as a free agent, with North London a potential destination.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Turkish transfer talk now, and S\u00f6zc\u00fc say Fenerbahce are set to hold talks with <b>Ollie Watkins<\/b> over a move to the S\u00fcper Lig. Fresh from signing <b>Mason Greenwood<\/b> and <b>Vedat Muriqi<\/b>the Turkish team want another forward to fuel their title challenge. Villa are reportedly prepared to let <b>Watkins<\/b> leave for the right price, as <b>Unai Emery<\/b> eyes a reunion with <b>Nicolas Jackson.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Also on the hunt for a striker are Barcelona, who have been rebuffed in attempts to land <b>Julian Alvarez<\/b>. Atletico Madrid have been firm in their stance that <b>Alvarez<\/b> is not for sale, despite a big bid on the table from Barca. According to Mundo Deportivo, ex-Liverpool goal-getter <b>Darwin Nunez<\/b> has been earmarked as a potential, more cost-effective, alternative.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Finally, Chelsea&#8217;s capture of <b>Maxence Lacroix<\/b> should be a domino effect for departures at Stamford Bridge. Como have upped their offer to sign <b>Trevoh Chalobah<\/b>who is keen on a switch to Serie A. <b>Axel Disasi <\/b>is also on the hunt for a new club with Roma interested.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The transfer rumour mill rumbles on. Here are the latest rumours from around Europe&#8217;s top&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}