Barcelona sporting director Deco believes that Manchester City star Rodri is the closest player to a prime Sergio Busquets – but says the club would never sell him.
Rodri has enjoyed another fine season for City, following on from his remarkable contributions in the 2022/23 Treble-winning campaign.
The Spaniard has been extremely influential as usual, and it was recently revealed that he has now personally gone one year unbeaten in a City shirt.
Rodri is viewed by many now as City’s most important player. Arguably, he is the one player in the team that Pep Guardiola simply cannot replace adequately.
And the star’s ability is not lost on Deco, who reckons he is the closest player to a prime Busquets…
Deco says Rodri is like Sergio Busquets, but Manchester City would never sell him
Deco was speaking about Barcelona’s dip in recent times and believes that one major reason for their struggles has been the loss of Sergio Busquets.
Busquets was widely regarded as one of the finest holding midfielders in the game while he was at Barca.
He was never quick or had physical prowess. But Busquets was an extremely intelligent player and was often multiple steps ahead of his opponent.
Busquets is easily one of the greatest holding midfielders the game has ever seen, and his exit from Barca was always going to sting them significantly.
Deco reckons that there’s only one player who’s a bit like Busquets today, and that is City’s maestro Rodri. But the former midfielder doesn’t think for one second his club could sign the 27-year-old.
He said (via Fabrizio Romano): “It’s almost impossible to replace Busquets. Rodri is the closest but City would never sell him to any club!”
The ultimate compliment for Rodri
Barcelona have certainly suffered as a result of Busquets leaving the club.
Obviously towards the end of his spell at the Camp Nou he wasn’t quite as influential as he used to be. But most definitely in the 2010s, Busquets was at the very top of his game.
No other holding midfielder could hold a candle to him, which is why what Deco has said here really is the ultimate compliment for Rodri.
Busquets is very possibly the greatest holding midfielder ever, but Rodri is definitely close to him stylistically.
£220,000-a-week star Rodri actually does have a couple of things on Busquets though, in that he is more of a goals and assists provider. The City man is also much more physical.
Rodri is on an incredibly exciting trajectory at the moment and it’s going to be very interesting to see how he compares to Busquets once he hangs up his boots. Hopefully, he’ll do that at City because Deco is right, it’s hard to see City ever wanting to sell such an amazing player.
