Arsenal to challenge Chelsea for £65m Real Madrid star?

Despite Arsenal only spending relatively little on new players this summer compared to our Premier League rivals, Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis have declared that the money is there for transfers if the right players are available. And we have seen the boss spend over £30 million on a single player three times in recent years, so perhaps we should not assume that he will not do so again.

If it is the availability of a player that is a problem for Arsenal, then there should be no problem in going for the Real Madrid and Colombia international star James Rodriguez, as the Evening Standard has reported the news from Spain that Real Madrid have let it be known they will sell.

The price is said to be around £65 million but that is no more than they paid Monaco for the player two years ago and the 25-year old was one of the most highly rated and sought after stars in the world. It has not quite gone as Rodriguez would have wished in Spain but he is having to compete with the likes of Ronaldo and Bale for a starting place.

The report claims that Chelsea as well as Arsenal are interested, but do you think we should battle them for this player or does Wenger need to focus on getting an out and out striker and a centre back?

Bob.

Tags Rodriguez

22 Comments

  1. Don’t think so!! Not really what we need unless you plan to sell Walcott or/and Campbell or/and a player in the middle of the park…not happening if we can’t even seal a 25m pounds fee deal for Mustafi because it is too much!

    Look IF as an example our english core (Walcott, Welbeck, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ox, Chambers) would be delivering on there much lauded talent and raw abilities we probably wouldn’t be asking for fresh blood and change to some level.
    But if that was the case we would’ve probably one last season EPL title and maybe also the one before. We probably would’ve gone deeper in all competitions and look like a BIG club not only OFF (revenue) the pitch but ON (trophies) too. Consistently contending for titles each season.

    Walcott & Welbeck would be hitting 20-25 goals a season each. Wilshere would showcase his amazing left foot week-in-week-out. Ramsey would be performing every season like he has 3 seasons ago now and we would see the Wales version (tactical set up doesn’t help him either). Ox would be our own but younger, more athletic version of Mahrez on the right wing. And finally Chambers would have played so much more games last season that we would’ve been ok and safe with the idea of him starting the opening game last week.
    But none of what is mentioned above is true so far. And that’s why the team is weak in some key areas. We have depth but quality, experience, leadership & consistent production are to be questioned at some positions!

    Your not changing has the manager, the board either. But the players, you can move them (in or out) & “force” them to change or out. It’s your call to make and there’s nothing wrong in refreshing the team and pulling the plug on players you deem haven’t produced (not the ones mentioned above in particular). Showing everyone that this club is here to contend & win major honours when May comes calling. It also breaks the monotony and the comfortable place players think & find themselves in. They wouldn’t be complacent.

    Some of them have been given far too many chances. At point it is the definition of insanity!

      1. Arsenal has 10 top 4
        EPL quality players.
        About 14 West Brom
        quality players.
        About 6 promising young players.
        If the top 10 stay fit all season
        we can win the League.
        If not it’s 3rd at best.

  2. Wenger should bid 65m pounds for Lewandoski. He is the Player Arsenal needs.
    If silverware is the measure of success in football, it makes no sense as to how Wenger still has a job in 2016. Is it mad to speculate any other reason for a wealthy, powerful club like Arsenal not to have won the league in 12 years and still have the same Manager?

    1. Because as you said *if silverware is the measure of success*! Obviously silverware is not a measurement of success in our shareholders eye.

      1. Honestly, what you have said is true in some sense. How did we get to a situation where we can’t attract the best players in world football even with Champions league? Lewandoski playing with Ozil. The guy will get 30 league goals. Bayern will sell if Lewandoski wants out. He left Dortmund as a free agent, he can leave Bayern if the right offer comes. Hope you know he presently wants a pay rise which Bayern are not willing to give. Wenger should take advantage of the situation. Lewandoski is the missing link. 65 to 70m pounds will get Lewandoski. But Wenger as always is the only fisherman who goes to fish but is happy he caught nothing.

        1. All this talk of Lewendowski and Rodregez and iccardi is all just that “Talk”
          Arsene cant even tie up a deal with Valencia for Mustafi because he’s pinching his coin purse tight do any of you really believe that any of the above want to come to us in any case? EVEN if Wenger was willing to spend the earth its now known worldwide that Arsenal have NO ambition and and are “Also Rans” rather than genuine contenders.
          Its interesting to note that Ramsey who I believe had a pretty mediocre season last year with us appeared to play to his full potential in the euro’s which means to me that he’s either not surrounded by the right balance at Arsenal OR he want to be noticed to move on from us, and who could blame him really we all know that the manager and board have no will to ein the PL as they place thier profits far higfher than thier silverware cabinet and that Im sorry to say is a fact

  3. LOL James Rodriguez is one of the most overrated players I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even start for RM and the last thing we need is another midfielder.

    1. Totally correct.
      Rodriguez had a just a
      couple of good moments
      in the 2014 World Cup.
      Why they paid 65 mill for him I will never know.
      We don’t need him coz we already
      have 6 flop midfielders.
      Maybe they meant 6.5 mill?
      Adelaide and Iwobi are already better than him.

      1. he is really good but not what we need, probably chelsea will get him off loading Oscar who I believe is an average Number 10

  4. It is now or never for Wenger. We have some world class players in our team and he needs to continue to build on this with players like Rodriguez. If Wenger does not at least show intention of bringing in a better player than Giroud, then we might as well pack our bags and say thanks for coming out but the season is already over before it began. We have had the same strike force for years, bar Sanchez and they (Giroud/Walcott/Chamberlain etc) have not mustered nearly enough goals to be true competitors. My question is why can Wenger not see this? Yes we bid for Vardy…and we didn’t get him. But for crying out loud there are plenty of decent strikers out there better and more importantly MORE CONSISTENT than what we currently have. Why oh why do Arsenal keep penny pinching? We are still a fairly attractive destination for players because we have players like Ozil, Sanchez, Cech and one or two others. While the iron is hot Wenger, splash the cash and bring in this of player who we know for sure will make an impact.

    1. @Big Gun
      But it wont happen we all know now that strikers who are looking to go have gone to our competition, Strikers who are not looking to go will be proced out of our league …not that this is difficult.
      we are faffing around with the mustafi deal and thats all thats going on
      Giroud and the lazy Walcott will lead the line this season and we’ll struggle to finish fourth or even fith, the club has become mediocre in its ambition and thinking and while we finished second last season we should have won. This season will be sooooo much harder and Im really not convinced at all that this is going to be anything other that a disaterous season for AFC

  5. He is not the player we need at the moment.
    We badly need a centreback and eenger is busy dilly dallying over mustafi’s fee.
    I hope that the player who rejected arsenal was mahrez and not mustafi because this is getting ridiculous.
    James can be considered a target later on when we have properly balanced our squad and filled the weak spots

    1. I don’t think it was Chambers who was offside, I seen the man in an offside position too, but where the ball ended up and Chambers position, it couldn’t have been him. Never went back to see who the offside player was, but it wasn’t Chambers. My guess Holding. To be honest, even if it had of been CC, there goal from free kick was not a free kick, and the wall was well more than ten yards. That mistake was more costly for us as it knocked the wind out, and gave liv and their fans a buzz.

  6. Yes but when we sell our
    players he be like.
    90 mill for Ramsey
    70 mill for Walcott
    60 mill for Wilshere
    50 mill for Oxlade.
    30 mill for Giroud
    30 mill for Wellbeck
    25 mill for Coquelin
    20 mill for Cazorla
    20 mill for Gabriel
    20 mill for Chambers
    17 mill for Jenkinson
    17 mill for Monreal
    15 mill for Gibbs
    15 mill for Debuchy
    14 mill for Szcz
    12 mill for Campbell
    10 mill for Sanogo.
    9 mill for Mertesacker
    Then wonder why we can’t get rid of any of our deadwood.

  7. First James Rodriguez is an extremely overrated player, has never been a regular 1st team player at Real. Second we have a lot of midfielders, we need a top striker and a top CB, end of the story

  8. I have to agree with some of the comment above. He is not what we really need, CB CF, we all know this. If we were going to improve on every and any position whenever an opportunity comes up, well then he’d be an improvement for our wing you’d have to say. We don’t do that though, otherwise we would have replaced some players years ago. Also I agree that Rodriquez has to be one of the most overrated players in a long time. I’m sure he’s good and has his qualities but he’s not one of the best players on the planet.

  9. The reason I don’t get annoyed with all these rumours is that: RUMOURS can NEVER be true !

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