Every single transfer window involves a high profile saga which seems to drag on for almost the entirety of the summer and this year it is likely that James Rodriguez’s protracted move away from Real Madrid will take on this role.
The Colombian
will leave the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu this summer with several clubs interested
in his services and it has been intimated that the Spanish giants would be
willing to do a deal at around £50 million, although it will take some period
of negotiating to get the European Champions down to such a fee.
Roller-coaster
adventure
Rodriguez’s
adventure in the Spanish capital couldn’t have ended any further from how it
began.
He arrived as
the superstar of the 2014 World Cup and the very latest in a long line of
Florentino Perez’s ‘Galacticos’ yet he will leave the club with his very final
moment being left out of Zinedine Zidane’s entire matchday squad for the
Champions League final.
Zidane and
Rodriguez has never really been able to strike the relationship that the
25-year-old had with Carlo Ancelotti and early fears over his weight as soon as
the Frenchman arrived seemed to have doomed his chances of ever returning to
his role as a regular starter.
Isco has
surpassed him in the coach’s thinking and the former Monaco playmaker has been
almost exclusively reserved for matches when Los Blancos need to rest regular
players or when the club is taking on a team they should really beat with
consummate ease.
A
highly-effective creative spark
Despite this,
his numbers for the campaign are impressive in relation to minutes played and
this has ensured that there is a rather large market for him when he decides
his future. In just 13 La Liga starts in the 2016/17 season Rodriguez managed
to score eight goals and contribute six assists.
Creativity is
Rodriguez’s best attribute and he can be positioned anywhere across a front
three or just behind a centre-forward.
With Jose
Mourinho desperate to add goals to his Manchester United team there are worse
options out there than the Colombian although there remains serious questions
about his application and just where he would fit in at Old Trafford.
As recently as
the latter weeks in May it was understood that Rodriguez would be allowed to
leave Madrid yet it was unclear just how keen Mourinho was on bringing him to
Manchester. The sensational collapse of Antoine Griezmann’s move to Old
Trafford has seen the club’s plans change and it may well be the case that
their previous ‘unsure’ stance on the forward may have altered with it.
United are not
alone in their interest as Internazionale are very keen on adding a star name
to their team with new coach Luciano Spalletti tasked with getting the
Nerazzurri back into the Champions League in his first season in charge.
Initially, the Italian giants hoped to replace Ivan Perisic with
Rodriguez but it is looking more and more likely that the Croatian will stay in
Milan.
Bayern Munich
are looking to bring in a marquee signing this summer to help Carlo Ancelotti’s
push for a Champions League title in what will likely be his last season in
Bavaria before Julian Nagelsmann arrives. With Alexis Sanchez proving difficult
to prise away from Arsenal, it could well be that the Colombian star is given a
chance to work with a coach he knows well once again.
Chelsea’s
transfer window is off to a slow start with the only real work going into
securing the return of Romelu Lukaku although Everton continue to play hardball
over a transfer fee. The focus aside from the Belgian forward is on departures
with Michy Batshuayi likely to move on after he declared he couldn’t spend another
season on Chelsea’s bench and as such any previously held interest in James
Rodriguez is now very much on the backburner.
Marketable
Marketability is
important in high profile transfers and Rodriguez has just that.
Despite being
the forgotten man in Madrid, he is still the highest profile footballer from
South America after Lionel Messi and Neymar and for a commercial juggernaut
like Manchester United this is at the very top of the list of considerations.
With Wayne
Rooney set to depart as soon as an offer arrives, there will be a space for the
Colombian and if United can accept that they will recoup a small amount of the
transfer fee through shirt sales and other sponsorship agreements then a move
for him may begin to look more appealing.
Win-win
for both parties
Real Madrid
themselves are happy to move him on after securing a famous La Liga and
Champions League double this term.
They will
promote Marco Asensio to a more prominent role in the team after a wonderful
debut season and Kylian Mbappe will likely join the club be that this summer or
the next.
There is no
place for James Rodriguez anymore, but in truth this is as much down to
circumstance as anything else and he will join a club this summer where he
could return to his best form be that in Milan or Manchester.
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