A Spanish journalist drops a surprise about Rodri's negotiations and Real Madrid

Rodri's move from Manchester City to Real Madrid is dead. The deal has collapsed, and within hours or days the Spain international will be a Barcelona player.

Spanish journalist Nacho Peña reckons this transfer would never have fallen through had the Merengues genuinely wanted the Manchester City man.

Real Madrid did want the player, according to Nacho, but never treated it as a priority. That is why the club failed to close the deal and never pushed to convince Rodri.

Defensa Central published Nacho's remarks, in which he said: "After listening to the arguments, and to the things being leaked by Real Madrid and Rodri's entourage, I reached the conclusion that neither party fought the battle to the end."

Neither Real Madrid nor Rodri, in Peña's view, held absolute certainty about wanting to unite the two paths.

He added: "Real Madrid was not prepared to sign Rodri to the end, nor was Rodri prepared to go to Real Madrid to the end, no matter how much they try to promote the idea that he was saying yes, Madrid, Madrid, and that he wanted only Real."

He stressed: "If Real Madrid had gone into killer mode, they would not have allowed the player to be snatched away, and they would have signed him quickly, but the Merengues did not treat the Rodri deal as a top priority, even though they had obtained the player's agreement."

He concluded: "It is true that Real took a series of steps, spoke with the player, had the player's agreement, and reached an agreement on a four-year contract with an annual salary of 15 million euros, and it is said that this is exactly the same amount that Barcelona offered, but everything began to slow down because Real Madrid was working on several deals at the same time, and began working on the Diomande deal, and signed Espi, and it seems the matter started to take a little longer, and perhaps this is what upset Rodri."