In a bid to bolster their attack, Chelsea have made an offer to sign James Rodriguez on loan. However, the deal has been declined by none other than Madrid President, Florentino Perez himself who is more interested in a permanent deal for James. The attacking midfielder has failed to make many first team appearances under manager Zinedine Zidane after being bought from AS Monaco for £65 million in 2014.
According to the Daily Mirror, Real Madrid will only consider a permanent move for the Colombian and will not entertain any loan deals. Madrid are reportedly seeking £60 million for him and Blues’ manager Antonio Conte may be tempted to consider the offer after signing just two new players – Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante. Deadline for the transfer window is just a couple of days away and both teams are dangerously close to losing out.
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James has been unable to make the kind of impression he would like to on Zidane and remains on the bench for most of Madrid’s games. Even though he was part of the team that won last season’s Champions League under Zidane, he was excluded from the penalty shootout with Atletico Madrid. His place in the team is under even more threat now that Madrid have recalled Spanish wonderkid Marcos Asensio from loan. The Colombian himself is not keen on staying – he and his family are pushing for a move to England.
Rodriguez had a promising first season under Carlo Ancelotti when he joined Los Blancos in 2014 – he found the back of the net often enough to be one of the fans’ favourite players. However, by next season he began to lose form and lost out on a place in the starting XI under Rafa Benitez. He was even accused of becoming overweight after spending so much time on the bench. Many thought things will change under Zinedine Zidane, but reality was far from it.
The news comes at the backend of an impressive outing from the Colombian in Real’s La Liga opener and in spite of Zidane saying earlier this week, “... he is a Real player and he is under contract. It's true that he has played less minutes and that can be a problem. I always try to make every player feel important. James is the same as the others.”
Nothing is certain about the future of James Rodriguez and with Chelsea and Juventus with their sights on him, this particular transfer saga could go down to the wire on the final day of the transfer window.
