James Rodriguez. This name is rather synonymous with everyone watching the FIFA world cup in Brazil. He is currently lighting up the event, but to be honest, its no surprise. I have been watching him for 3 years now and I know the hype around him is not worth it, he's far better than the hype. James is not a potential, he is a rising star. He was bought from Porto to Monaco for €45million at 21, tells you that he is a star. El Pibe scored 10 goals and assisted 12 whilst creating 85 chances (The most in Europe's top 5 leagues) in 38 games (all competitions) for Monaco in this past season. He currently has 5 goals & 4 assists in 4 matches at this world cup. Impressive.
The stats show James as a great player and a would-be target for top clubs. But then the questions start coming, which club? How much? But there are other things to look at here. First of all, James has just played 4 seasons in Europe, in Portugal & France (not the biggest of leagues), with 2 champions league seasons under his belt. In these 4 seasons, he has won 3 Portuguese league titles, 1 Portuguese cup & the Europa league. On an individual level he has won just the Portuguese league player of the year award in 2012. He also had the most assists in Ligue 1 in 2013/2014. I agree, he has been very impressive at this world cup, but he has not really played against top, top opposition. No offence to the 4 teams he has met. The point here is, he hasn't really been tested. I know people would say the world cup is the biggest stage, but a player can be on the form of his life for those 7 matches, it may sound stupid, but use this logic, judging based on the what we have seen in these past 2 weeks, would you say James is a better player than Ronaldo? You be the judge of that.
Another issue here is price. Monaco bought him for €45million. They do not need to sell for any reason. They can match any contract offer. If they want to sell, how much will they ask for after being named their player of the year, after being top of the assists charts in Ligue 1 & after having this brilliant world cup. How much will they sell him for? We will be looking at double his price a year ago, that's €90MILLION !!!, and the transfer saga would be so long and tiresome. Not worth it.
Another question is who can afford him at €90million and even among those who can afford him, who needs him?. Those who can afford him are PSG, Bayern, Man city, Man utd, Chelsea, Real madrid & Barcelona. Monaco will never sell to PSG. So when it comes down to who needs him, you will have Man utd (he won't go there, they're not even in the UCL), Chelsea & Bayern don't need another forward player. Its leaves the 2 spanish teams, a league were he considers to be the best, (he prefers Real madrid). Barcelona have been looking for another forward player to start along with Neymar & Messi. Real madrid need another forward to add depth. But to be truthful, both don't need him.
Make no mistake about it, James is a fantastic player, and everyone would love to have him in their team, but with such experience, the gruesome difficulties such a transfer would take, the large amount of money & with the trouble of fixing him into your team, I think it will be the best thing for everyone if James stays in Monaco for the 2014/2015 season.
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