The minute James Rodriguez joined Everton; the wolves were at the door trying to ruin the move.
Past his best, injured, unmotivated, in it for the money; whatever the naysayers could come up with, they did. They even sneered at Everton’s complete joy at the fact they had signed their biggest name in at least 20 years; some would argue double that.
When the Colombian shone at the beginning of the season, those naysayers were suspiciously quiet. The opinions they had vehemently defended when he arrived suddenly weren’t worth the effort.
Everton, meanwhile, continued to enjoy their new star man and the fact they had somehow secured him on a free transfer.
Then, as the winter months hit, those naysayers started to slink back out the shadows. Rodriguez’s injury problems meant he couldn’t find any form or consistency, and the old problems and criticisms started again.
Suddenly, Everton were worried about his injuries; there were suspicions that he wasn’t as injured as he was making out, and there was something going on behind the scenes.
This was quickly picked up on in Spain, where they very happily spent a week gloating at the fact Rodriguez was yet to prove Real Madrid were wrong to let him go.
They revelled in the fact he was injured once again, covered his injury history extensively and happily pointed out how all the problems that plagued him in the Spanish capital were rearing their heads again.
It was an easy chance to have a dig at a player they had loved to blame for the plethora of problems during his time at the Bernabeu.
You can also see this on a regular basis with Gareth Bale, who, alongside Rodriguez, is held up by the Spanish press as the cause of everything that was and is wrong for Zinedine Zidane and co.
It felt almost inevitable, then, that when things started to go slightly off-kilter at Goodison Park, those same people would start finding their voices.
That happened this week as Defensa Central, a Real Madrid orientated website, claimed an exclusive that Rodriguez wants to return to Spain and join Atlético Madrid.
Their sources, who they claimed were close to Real Madrid, stated that the midfielder was ‘unhappy’ at Everton, with the ‘weather, customs, and very physical football’ all convincing him to return to Spain. Even Carlo Ancelotti’s influence wasn’t changing his mind.
They, naturally, found the whole rumour ridiculous, and they have every right to do so. Let us start with the premise that Rodriguez doesn’t like the weather.
On the face of it, this is easy to believe given Rodriguez hails from Colombia and has spent large parts of his career in sunny climes such as Madrid, Porto and Monaco.
But then he also spent two years in Munich, where the weather is not much different to that found on Merseyside. Indeed, across the winter months, the maximum temperature in Liverpool is higher, while the two cities have very similar hours of sunlight and the number of days with rain are extremely close as well.
In other words, it’s hard to believe the weather would suddenly be a problem given the Colombian has lived with similar, in some cases worse, in Munich.
It’s also hard to believe he’s found the ‘very physical football’ a problem as that would suggest he was not aware it would be that way beforehand, which would be ludicrously ignorant, to say the least.
The culture, meanwhile, is a little vague. Does it mean the culture of English football, the culture at Everton or the culture in the city?
The latter would be borderline hilarious given he finds himself living in a city that was named Capital of Culture back in 2008 and has more museums than coffee shops (not that he’s experiencing either in lockdown, of course).
It would also be odd for him to be unhappy with the culture under Ancelotti, given he’s the reason he’s at Everton in the first place and has worked in that same culture on two separate occasions quite happily.
So, then, when we eliminate all three of those options, we’re left asking ourselves, what’s the logic in running such a story? The answer involves looking at what Defensa Central are.
As we explained earlier, the website is Real Madrid orientated, one that racks up millions of visitors each and every month, and those visiting it are very keen to hear anything negative about the likes of Rodriguez and Bale.
Again referring back to what we said earlier, those two are among the public enemies at the club and any chance to stick the knife in is done gleefully.
Thus, a transfer rumour suggesting he’s desperate to pack it all in at Everton after just a year confirms all of their assumptions about the player and helps to cover up much of the embarrassment at the fact they let him go on a free too.
That will have been lapped up by Madrid fans, who wouldn’t even think to question why a player who was miserable and has cut all ties with them is now telling sources at the club he wants to return to La Liga with their city rivals.
That alone makes it a non-rumour, and we haven’t even questioned why he would want to swap working with Ancelotti, a manager with who he works well with, for Diego Simeone, a manager with a flaky record when it comes to players like him.
If you’re an Everton fan, it would be wise to treat this rumour for what it is; a predictable attempt from a Madrid based media outlet to score easy points against a former player and give their readership exactly what they want.
