The Copa America 2016 is yet another platform which has seen a few South American stars shine, one of which is James Rodriguez. The Colombian did not have the best of seasons at Real Madrid and there are doubts about his future at the La Liga side.
Even the manager for the Colombian team, Jose Pekerman did state that James should move if he does get a chance as the only way he can grow into a better footballer is if he gets more playing time. Last season at Real Madrid, the Colombian only managed 17 starts in the Spanish league campaign.
He did provide eight assists in a total of 26 league games, which included substitute appearances, but the 24-year-old needs to play more games in hopes of improving his qualities and skills.
There have been rumors doing the rounds that Jose Mourinho would want the Colombian at Manchester United and the Red devils seem to have a lot of money to spend seeing how they purchased Eric Bailly for over 30 million pounds from Villarreal.
Rodriguez would cost a lot more than that since Real did pay Monaco 80 million euros and something similar would have to be paid by the English Premier League side. The big question is, should James think about making a switch to the Premier League?
A talent worth having-
There are two issues with regards to this transfer rumour. One is the fact that Real Madrid are not giving enough chances to James and he does need to move to hone his skills. The other issue would be how Jose Mourinho has treated some of the star players and his overall playing style at the club.
While we have already touched upon the first point and how important it is for a young player to be part of the first team regularly, the Jose Mourinho angle has not been touched upon yet. There have been rumours again, that Mourinho would be willing to let go of Juan Mata, something similar to what he did with the Spaniard when the Portuguese took over at Chelsea.
The Spanish ace might be United’s most creative player and replacing him with Rodriguez would make a lot of sense but for James to shine he does need quality all around him as well.
Manchester United don’t really have that in their team but then again, Real Madrid also had a lot of quality in their team and James could not do much in term of providing attacking input for the side. The main requirement for the Colombian is to play regularly and that has not happened either under Rafa Benitez or even under Zinedine Zidane.
The 24-year-old still has time to decide where he wants to go and moving to Manchester United might not be the worst decision he takes, as long as he gets to play regularly for the English side, he should be able to light up Old Trafford and make United the force they are to be reckoned with.