According to The Daily Mail, Tottenham are one of the clubs who are interested in potentially signing James Rodriguez from Real Madrid this summer.
What’s the word?
The Colombia international endured a difficult 2019/2020 campaign, making just 14 appearances across all competitions for Los Blancos. Now, The Daily Mail claim that Rodriguez could be leaving the Santiago Bernabeu this summer, and that his struggles to nail down a starting spot could see him bring the curtain down on his career in Madrid.
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The report adds that “plenty of Premier League clubs are tracking his on-going situation and Rodriguez himself appears keen on a move to England”, with Spurs one of the sides mentioned as being interested.
Christian Eriksen successor
Whilst Gareth Bale has been touted with a sensational return to north London this summer, Rodriguez may be the smarter option for Spurs.
The £200k-a-week star has the creative talents that can truly replace what they lost with Christian Eriksen when the Dane move to Inter, and whilst his performances for Madrid last season weren’t up to scratch, he can still give Spurs a bit of magic in that number ten role.
As per Whoscored, despite playing just eight times in La Liga last season, he still averaged an impressive 1.8 key passes per game, whilst the two campaigns before at Bayern Munich, he managed 2.6 and 2.8 respectively – to put those figures into context, Heung-min Son led that particular statistic for Spurs, and he only averaged 1.4 per match in the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho has previously gone on record to slate one of Rodriguez’s performances, slamming him after Bayern’s Champions League defeat to Liverpool. He said: “James Rodriguez absolutely lost, incapable of making any kind of pressing, any kind of game in between the lines or connection with the three attacking players.”
But whilst he may have criticised him before, Mourinho may feel he can be the man to bring the best out of Rodriguez again in north London.