According to beIN Sports correspondent Tancredi Palmeri, Everton have agreed personal terms with James Rodriguez. All that is left is for Real Madrid to make a decision on the offer we’ve put forward. James is out of favour at the Santiago Bernabeu and Florentino Perez has admitted Los Blancos may have to sell to buy this summer, so we shouldn’t have any problem landing his signature.
James wants out and Real want rid
James has fallen down the pecking order at Real and spent last season on the periphery (14 appearances in all competitions and 728 minutes of playing time), so he should jump at the chance to leave.
Between 2017 and 2019, the 29-year-old was loaned out to Bayern Munich. He scored and created a respectable 35 goals in 67 games but didn’t manage to get more opportunities back in Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane has preferred Isco in attacking-midfield and Eden Hazard, Vinícius Júnior, Marco Asensio, Rodrygo, Gareth Bale and Lucas Vazquez out wide, so it’s unlikely Real will stand in his way of a departure.
How much will he cost?
CIES Football Observatory say James’ market value is €7m-€10m (£6.25m-£8.9m), Transfermarkt believe he’s worth £28.8m and Transferzone value him at €45.5m (£40.6m). Real paid around £63m for the Colombian international back in 2014, but they’re unlikely to get anywhere near that fee now.
Not only has James’ stock fallen, he’s out of contract in 2021. Palmeri says Real want €25m (£22.3m) while James has agreed a deal with us worth €4.5m-a-year/€86.5k-per-week (£4m-a-year/£77k-per-week), but we’re yet to meet Real’s demands. We want to pay a lower price for James and that’s slowing down the deal.
James isn’t getting any younger and hasn’t played a lot of football in the last 12 months, so he shouldn’t cost a premium.
Summary
James will be a fantastic upgrade on the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson. James has scored 37 goals and made 42 assists in 125 games at Real. To land his signature for little over £22m this summer would be great business, so we can’t afford to let him slip through our fingers.
In other news, we’ve given a transfer boost in our pursuit of a €15m centre-back