James Rodriguez’s £200,000-a-week wage demands scuppered his chances of a return to Porto as well as Luiz Diaz’s move to Everton, as reported by The Athletic.
Seven years after winning the Golden Boot at the 2014 World Cup and sealing a £63 million move to Real Madrid, James Rodriguez looks increasingly like a man out of time; a tape deck in a Tesla, an old-school number ten in a gegenpressing game.
In an era where the needs of the collective are valued over the whims of the individual, the Colombian superstar has gone from Galactico to Goodison Park misfit in the blink of an eye.
If Carlo Ancelotti was willing to find a place in his Everton XI for a man whose attacking output was often undermined by a lack of work rate out of possession, the same cannot be said of Rafa Benitez; a defence-first pragmatist at his very core.
Rodriguez, who endured a frosty relationship with the Spaniard during their short time together at the Bernabeu, has not played a single minute of football this season.
It speaks volumes about Benitez that he would rather put his faith in the limited but hard-working Andros Townsend than one of the most naturally gifted footballers in European football.
Where next for James Rodriguez at Everton?
With the window now shut until January, James feels like little more than a £200,000-a-week, Twitch-streaming millstone around Everton’s neck.
According to The Athletic, his eye-watering wages meant a return to a Porto side where he lifted a trio of Primeira Liga titles a decade or so ago soon hit the buffers.
As did a deal that would have seen another supremely-gifted Colombian attacker – Luis Diaz – move in the other direction.
The real tragedy here is that Diaz, a fleet-footed winger rather than a probing play-maker, looks far better suited to Benitez’s counter-attacking game plan than the stylish yet sluggish James.
“I am happy for (Diaz). We hope he continues on that path. Colombia needs players of that quality and we hope the young people who come, come with that same hunger and a lot of quality,” James said after his compatriot scored four goals at this summer’s Copa America.
“Colombia needs that kind of player.”
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