Barcelona goes for Rodri a third time - City is holding the price list

Barcelona is knocking on the same door for a third time, and each time it offers more. The first bid of 45 million euros for Rodri was met in Manchester with derision, the second of 60 million was rejected without much explanation, and now, according to Marca, the third could reach 70 million euros plus bonuses. The Catalans are convinced they will succeed this time. The logic is on their side: the 30-year-old Spanish midfielder, who brought City four Premier League titles and the Champions League in the 2022/23 season, has said clearly that he will not extend his contract and wants a return to Spain. A player who does not want to stay is a player with a falling price - and yet City sits and waits. When a club has money, even one year of contract can behave like a fortress.

Liverpool sold a third - and the buyers have an option on all of it

This is the story worth more than any transfer this week. On Friday Fenway Sports Group signed a definitive agreement to sell a minority stake in Liverpool to the 1892 Holdings consortium, led by Amit Bhatia, former co-owner of Queens Park Rangers. The group includes the Mittal family funds, the office of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and K5 Sports, whose principal investor is the founder of Amazon - Jeff Bezos. The official figure has not been published, but reports put it at around 30 percent to a third of the club. Here is where it gets interesting: The Athletic writes that the agreement contains a mechanism allowing the new investors to buy a controlling stake within the next 12 months. Sources on both sides say it is "an option, not an obligation". Bhatia becomes vice-chairman, and Bezos will not sit on the board. So: the richest man has entered one of the biggest football clubs in the world, with the door left open to a takeover - and all of it packed into a statement that sounds like a routine capital injection.

City offers 102.5 million pounds for Enzo - Chelsea has already lost a manager

Manchester City has sent a 102.5 million pound offer to Chelsea for Enzo Fernandez. The Londoners want 120 million, but their position is weak for one simple reason: the Argentine openly wants to leave, and the window is closing. His contract runs to 2032, last season he recorded 16 goals and 10 assists across all competitions, and he is one of the few in the dressing room who speaks up. The worst part for Chelsea is not the figure but the name of the club sending it. City already took their manager, Enzo Maresca. If it now takes Fernandez too, the "long-term project" story in which Chelsea spends hundreds of millions starts to sound like the story of a club raising players for the better ones. How many young signings do you collect before you stop being a starting position and become a final one?

Vardar without a coach, without a win - and today it has to play in Struga

The reigning champion started the season with a stumble: a 0:2 home defeat to Shkendija, in front of its own fans at the Todor Proeski Arena. The Argentine Cristian Fabbiani paid with his job, and today in Struga the team is led by Matija Mirkov, until now the first assistant and Goce Sedloski's collaborator in last year's title-winning season. The derby against Struga Trim Lum kicked off at 16:30. History says Vardar is the more successful side in this fixture - three wins and three draws in the last six matches, with five of those six producing no more than two goals. But there is one detail working in Vardar's favour this season: in Europe it showed it plays far better away than on its own pitch. When an away trip is more comfortable than home ground, that is no longer tactics - it is a diagnosis.

Shkendija Arachinovo beat the "legion of foreigners" with eleven home-grown players

This is the match that says the most about the state of Macedonian football. Yesterday in Kavadarci, Shkendija Arachinovo won 1:0 at Tikvesh and reached the first league win in its history in top-flight football. Scorer: Marko Simonovski, 34 years old, with a header from six or seven metres in the 27th minute, after a cross from Vildam Kerim. Tikvesh had two convincing wins at the start of the season and lined up with eight foreign players in the starting eleven - from Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, Brazil. Shkendija Arachinovo lined up without a single foreigner. The hosts' best chance - Wisdom in the 78th minute, alone in front of goal - hit the crossbar. The question this result raises is not new, but this time it is signed with three points: how many "reinforcements" get imported every summer while Macedonian footballers with quality sit on the bench waiting for someone to look at them?