That’s according to BBC Sport journalist Simon Stone, who largely reports on City and Manchester United news.
Mahrez emerged as a last-minute January target for City once the extent of Leroy Sane’s ankle ligament injury was learnt.
But a deal looked unlikely from the off with Leicester demanding more than Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk for their star man.
City were not put off though and engaged in talks in a bid to haggle the Foxes down from their starting point.
News broke on deadline day that Leicester were willing to do business if a deal worth £95m was on offer.
And it quickly emerged that they wanted a player to be thrown into the bargain to make up part of that valuation.
Stone has now revealed that the man in question was Roberts, who City would have had to recall from Celtic to facilitate Mahrez’s switch.
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"Re Mahrez. The '£95m total package' included Patrick Roberts, who Leicester were keen on," he wrote on Twitter.
"In the end they would have accepted £80m but this was still more than @ManCity were prepared to pay."
Mahrez was ultimately forced to stay at Leicester and has not trained since Tuesday due to his prospective City transfer not going through.
Shock reports from Spain today though claim the 26-year-old is holding out for a move to Real Madrid.
