Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers are ‘willing to make an effort’ to sign James Rodríguez from Real Madrid this summer and may be able to get him on the cheap if they do.
That’s according to Marca, who say the Colombian’s future is ‘far from Real Madrid’ at this moment in time.
The midfielder has made it clear that he wants to leave the club and Zinedine Zidane is in agreement, making that clear by continuing to leave Rodríguez out of his team.
Rodríguez, though, has the ‘upper hand’ in the situation because, with his contract set to expire next summer, he is able to talk to clubs around Europe as of January.
That has left Real Madrid in a delicate situation as they know that if they don’t sell him in the next two months, they face the prospect of him going on a free next summer.
Therefore the ‘logical thing’ according to Marca is that Florentino Perez agrees to a sale, but at terms far below the €45-50m he was demanding from Napoli and Atlético Madrid a year ago.
This summer he would be ‘practically obliged’ to reduce that to €20-25m, but there is every chance that any suitor could pressure Real Madrid to lower that further knowing they need to get rid.
His future looks more likely to be in the Premier League, mainly as he earns around €7m a year, a figure he knows he can’t get elsewhere but will be keen to get as close to.
There are several teams in England ‘willing to make an effort’ to sign him, and Manchester United and Wolves are said to be keen.
Wolves interest won’t come as a surprise to anyone given they’ve been linked before, and Gestifute represent Rodríguez.
They are headed up by super-agent Jorge Mendes, who as well as having a director role at Wolves, has also placed several of his clients – Rúben Neves, Diogo Jota, Daniel Podence, Pedro Neto and João Moutinho – at Molineux.
Manchester United’s interest is a little more surprising. They too have been linked in the past, but it is hard to see where Rodríguez would fit in given how United’s midfield is currently flourishing.
Either way, both are said to be interested and, it seems if they were to push Madrid hard, could get themselves a bargain.
