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Arsenal to fight Man Utd & Spurs for world class attacker in January

By on September 14, 2016

According to the Mirror, Arsenal are ready to do battle with Manchester United and Tottenham over the signing of out-of-favour Real Madrid attacker James Rodriguez in January.

Rodriguez joined Madrid from Monaco after starring for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup and he enjoyed an encouraging debut season in Spain having scored 17 goals in his 46 appearances.

However, he fell out-of-favour last season under new boss Zinedine Zidane after making just 17 La Liga starts and has played just 34 minutes of first team action so far this campaign with youngster Marco Asensio even ahead of him in the pecking order.

There was plenty of speculation suggesting that Rodriguez would leave the Bernabeu in the summer with Arsenal reportedly among those keeping an eye on his situation but a move failed to materialise before the window slammed shut.

However, it seems the 25-year-old hasn’t given up hope of leaving Madrid as the Mirror are citing reports coming out of Spain that claim Rodriguez will push for a move during the January transfer window.

And it looks like he could yet be heading for the Premier League as the newspaper says that Arsenal are ready to battle it out with Manchester United and Tottenham if he decides he wants to resurrect his career in the Premier League.

Rodriguez is a huge talent who looked primed to become a real star following his exploits at the Brazil World Cup two years ago but things really haven’t worked out for him in Spain.

It’s understandable that he’s struggled to get regular game time as he’s up against the likes of Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco as well as a host of other top players and I said during the summer that it would be best for him to leave Madrid.

Many would say Arsenal don’t need another small, technical player like Rodriguez but the fact is we lack creativity when Mesut Ozil is either not on form or is being market out of the game and Rodriguez could give us that edge we miss in the final third at times.

He’s capable of playing anywhere across the front three positions but I could see him out on the wing to create a devastating attack along with Ozil and Sanchez behind Giroud or Perez.

Walcott has started the season brightly but Rodriguez would be an upgrade on the Englishman and certainly on Oxlade-Chamberlain – who had another disappointing night against PSG on Tuesday.

So I’d love to see us sign the gifted South American as he has the potential to become one of our best ever signings. Football Transfers have listed Arsenal’s top 5 best ever signings [http://footballtransfers.uk/arsenals-5-best-transfers/] and while there is some fierce competition in there, I could see Rodriguez challenging Anelka for fifth spot if he did end up moving to the Emirates.

However, we spent close to £100m in the summer so I personally don’t think Wenger would spend the kind of money it would take to land Rodriguez in January. Madrid paid over £50m for him two years ago so I think they’d be expecting to recoup that figure given today’s over-inflated market, and I just don’t think Arsene will spend that sort of cash this winter.