Real Madrid may have to sell either James Rodriguez or Isco by summer 2020, and it appears they may be dangling the Colombian playmaker in player swap deals with notable Premier League clubs.
Although James Rodriguez may have fallen out of favor recently after suffering an injury, the attacking midfielder has played well for Real Madrid whenever he’s been in the lineup. James put together strong performances against Levante and Sevilla in September, and he was one of the lone bright spots in Los Merengues’ 1-0 loss to Mallorca last month.
However, El Desmarque’s Jorge Santos reports that Florentino Perez is weighing his options and could use James in a player swap to acquire Paul Pogba, Christian Eriksen, or Ruben Neves.
There are lots of rumors linking Isco and James to exits in January, and each rumor has varying degrees of believability. Isco has been mentioned in more rumors, but between the two attacking midfielders, James may be the more likely to leave. Although James is in better form this season and has a lot of technical quality, Zinedine Zidane may favor Isco more. Plus, Isco is one year younger and is the more dangerous athlete on the ball when healthy.
If James is dealt this winter, none of those three options makes much sense. Firstly, while Manchester United are keen on adding an actual attacking midfielder, James is 28 and may not be valuable enough to reduce their asking price for Pogba significantly. There’s also the matter that Pogba would only be moved in summer 2020 if at all. While there’s mutual interest between Real and Pogba, United are understandably desperate to keep their best player; there’s also the matter of saving funds for Kylian Mbappe.
Eriksen somehow makes even less sense. It’s unclear if he’s actually better than James, though he can probably do more as a box-to-box (if he had to play there…Real would have better options) than James. But Eriksen is on an expiring contract. Why would Real Madrid swap a quality player for someone who will either be a free signing in the summer or a bargain-bin signing in January?
As for Ruben Neves, he scores some bangers but is in poor form this season. He could actually fit Real positionally and is just 22, but it’s debatable if he’s the caliber of player Zidane wants in his side. Furthermore, Wolves would have to be crazy to sell him this winter and are really at no pressure to make a move. None of this accounts for James, who presumably would not want to go from Real Madrid to a club that is happy to make the Europa League.