That James Rodriguez is on the front cover of Marca today, apparently up for sale, is no surprise at all.
James’ attitude is a concern. Marca say that whilst the player has done nothing particulary wrong during pre-season, he’s not exactly busted a gut to make sure he has a Real Madrid career.
Zinedine Zidane and co would have expected the 25 year old to give it absolutely everything he has to nail down a Madrid career. However, things have got so bad that it’s no longer just a case of whether James will start games, but a concern over whether he’ll even get a reasonable amount of minutes from scraps.
None of that is anything hugely new. But then Marca go on to list possible destinations, and Arsenal is one of them. It’s claimed the London club is one of the few who can afford James, and are interested in the attacking midfielder’s situation.
But then, an attacking midfielder surely shouldn’t be at the top of Arsene Wenger’s shopping list. As far as we know, James can’t play in central defence, and whilst he could probably do a job upfront, that would again mean Arsenal squeezing round pegs into square holes.
Then there’s the price. Marca say Real Madrid paid €75m/£65m for James, and they want all of that back, despite wanting to sell and the player failing to get close to expectations.
It’s certainly ambitious.
