Enzo Maresca saw the question coming. As it was being put to him that Rodri is arguably the best in the world in his position, the new Manchester City manager laughed, and interjected.“How do we solve the problem?”He allowed the question to finish and then delivered an answer that, at first, came across as though he may have been joking — but he was not.“Try to find a new Rodri,” he said.If there is one statement that sums up the task on Maresca’s hands it is probably that. Or the one that he made earlier in his Friday press conference. “The target is to carry on in the same way of the last 10 or 15 years.”Find a new Rodri, the World Cup’s Golden Ball winner and the best midfielder in the world. Win as much as City won under Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and particularly Pep Guardiola, which represents 26 trophies.Replacing Rodri, who left for Barcelona, is perhaps Enzo Maresca’s biggest challenge (Eric Alonso/Getty Images)On the day that City’s season starts against Bournemouth, those things feel particularly difficult. The last seven days have been dominated by stories about players leaving the club, something which started last Sunday with the confirmation that a deal had been agreed with Barcelona to sell Rodri for a deal that could be worth £65.3million ($89.1m).That came a few hours after City were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal in the Community Shield, and the hope and expectation heading into the week was that incomings would soon follow. Instead, Tijjani Reijnders moved to Al Qadsiah for £51m ($69.6m), before The Athletic reported that Nico Gonzalez could join Newcastle United, and that not only is Savinho going to Tottenham Hotspur, but Omar Marmoush could too.City signed Elliot Anderson for a club record £116m ($158m) during the World Cup but progress has been slow since. They have been trying to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi and Enzo Fernandez to help strengthen midfield, but there have been no meaningful updates for a while. They have enquired about Adam Wharton, but Crystal Palace are reluctant sellers, to put it mildly.The only player that appeared immediately obtainable last week is Palmeiras winger Allan Elias. The idea of signing a 22-year-old who has hardly pulled up any trees in Brazil and has not played for his country at any youth level hardly caught the imagination.Maresca says there is a plan behind the scenes, and of course there is, but that has been hard for many to grasp.The idea of finding a new Rodri, then, might be hard to believe in current circumstances, but this is something that Maresca has given plenty of thought. He talked about it over coffee in South Korea — at the time, he could not admit what he knew all along, that the Spaniard had no intention of staying at City this season — but he makes the point that City have always moved on, even from the biggest players.“It is what it is,” he says. “Rodri, when he arrived here, he hadn’t won the Ballon d’Or, he hadn’t won the Champions League, he hadn’t won the Club World Cup. He joined the club and then he won many important things.“Now the target for us is to try to find the new Rodri. I was thinking last night that when David Silva was here, everyone was worried. Kevin (De Bruyne) arrived. When (Sergio) Aguero was here, everyone was worried. Erling (Haaland) arrived. Fernandinho… Rodri arrived. It’s just about this.“When they leave, you need to be good in recruiting the next one. But they are all similar. David, Kevin, Fernandinho, Rodri, Aguero, Erling. There is one more that now I forgot, but last night I was thinking about that.“It’s just normal, it’s a change. It’s not a problem.”Savinho is one of several players who have departed City this summer (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)Maresca admits that City’s transfer window has been complicated by several players who are or were determined to leave the club, meaning that by the time the window closes on September 1, this will probably be City’s busiest summer of recent years. That had been expected, but the optics of several departures, with few updates on replacements, has meant that supporters have spent the week fretting about holes in the squad and the club’s ability to thrive in the post-Pep era.“There are 10 days to go, hopefully we can do the things that we need to do,” Maresca said on Friday, urging patience. “It doesn’t help that there are players that for different reasons want to leave, that is for sure, but we need to adapt and also we don’t want to keep players who don’t want to stay, for sure.“I think it’s a similar situation for all the clubs, all the fans, because you are waiting to do things. Probably the normal thing in the transfer window is that you have to wait until the last week, because all the clubs try to keep players until the last week and then sell for more money. It’s normal. Again, when the transfer window closes and we have all the squad here for sure it will be different.”City, sales-wise, have had a phenomenal window. They have sold a lot of mediocre players for a combined fortune. Savinho is still just 22, still has potential, and is a fearsome dribbler, but needs to improve his end product drastically — to get at least £75m is frankly staggering.Reijnders could have improved if he had stayed for another season but the chance to get £51m for a player who felt undervalued, and often struggled to make an impact last season, also has to be considered good value. If Nico and Marmoush depart for similar fees that the club paid for them, it would be the same story.It is concerning that those players all signed in the last two years. In fact, other than Savinho, they all signed in the last 18 months. Recouping top fees for struggling players is to be applauded, but the fact they were all seen to be part of a much-needed rebuild means it is hard to have too much faith that the new Rodri will be next off the conveyor belt.City’s window as a whole can only be judged once it is finished, and they believe they will sign the players they need. But the season starts with a gaping hole in the middle of the pitch following the exits of Rodri and Bernardo Silva, and the lack of business so far. This would be less than ideal if Guardiola were still in charge, let alone a new manager working with a group of players who had become so used to the former boss.“When you work with the same person every day, and then change, everything changes,” Maresca says. “(If) I’m an actor and I work with the same director, making movies for 10 years — suddenly the director changes. Me as an actor, I’m still thinking in the same way I was with the previous director.“But now the director is new, so I need to adapt. It’s complicated and not easy. That’s why I’m saying that it’s a context. It’s not an excuse, but it requires a little bit of time. But we need to compete as soon as possible.”With City having sold so many players, and others looking likely to follow, they simply have to go into the market. As Maresca acknowledges, teams will be asking for top dollar, not just because it is late in the window, but because it is City, and especially because they have brought in so much money from sales.It means they will have to pay over the odds for top targets, settle for cheaper options, or hold their nerve and wait for the price to be right for the ones they really want, which seemingly means going into the season with plenty of work still to do.Given the task is so big, and the inevitable pressure on Maresca, it is hardly ideal preparation for the big kick-off. But looked at another way, the task is so big, and there is likely to be pressure in replacing Guardiola anyway, that it will take weeks, if not months, for City to be at their best.If waiting until after the season has started to bring in the players they truly want at a price that suits is what it takes, then that is probably a sensible trade-off — but it does mean that the final days of the transfer window have to go according to plan.