Aston Villa in the running to sign former Real Madrid superstar

According to Graeme Bailey, TBR, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have both been approached and offered the chance to sign former Real Madrid and Everton midfielder James Rodriguez.

Villa boss Unai Emery has been very busy already this summer and welcomed the likes of Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley and Ian Maatsen to Villa Park as the squad goes through a fairly big turnover of personnel. According to Lyall Thomas, Sky Sports, Unai Emery is very much still in the market as he seeks a player who can play in the No.10 role.

The 33-year-old Colombian would bring a wealth of experience to Villa Park having played nearly 500 club matches and over 50 of those being in the UEFA Champions League. The former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich midfielder has played the majority of his career in the central attacking midfield role and is known for his ability to create goalscoring opportunities and score the occasional long-range effort.

Rodriguez, who was signed by Real Madrid for £63 million in 2014 (which was a huge amount at the time), spent 2020/21 season on loan at Everton under Carlo Ancelotti. He therefore brings Premier League experience as well as Champions League experience and scored 6 goals and 4 assists that year. Rodriguez was also of course the star of the 2014 World Cup having won the Golden Boot and Goal of the Tournament award.

Rodriguez would therefore no doubt bring a significant level of experience and quality to the team. However, at the age of 33 it could be argued that his best days are behind him and last season saw the midfielder play just 8 times for Sao Paulo in Brazil's top flight. It is unlike Emery to sign players who are in the later stages of their career but he may well be a player that could be suited at this very moment.

What Villa wouldn't want however is a repeat of the Philippe Coutinho disaster. Coutinho cost the club a lot of money just so a big name who was realistically past his best, was at the club and in reality the deal worked out very poorly. Coutinho has since had loan deals in Qatar and in Brazil but Villa are still playing a portion of his very high wage package. The signing of Rodriguez would have the potential to go the same way and therefore Emery may decide to look past this option.

Villa reportedly remain interested in Joao Felix, although financially that could be a difficult deal to put together, Nico Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White.

UTV