English Premier League giants Chelsea FC is reportedly preparing a £65 million bid for the services of Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez and has dubbed it as new head coach Antonio Conte's "marquee signing" of the summer.
The rumors came out in the aftermath of rival Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho's world transfer record-breaking £89.3 million deal with Juventus for Paul Pogba last week.
Real is said to be "willing to part" with the 25-year-old Rodriguez if his £65 million release clause is met by interested clubs and Chelsea is among the teams who are rumored to be eyeing the Colombia international before the summer transfer window closes at the end of the month, as per 90min.
The report disclosed that Los Blancos manager Zinedine Zidane had told Rodriguez that "he may be better off at another club" as the former football superstar prefers the lineup of Isco, Lucas Vazquez, and Marco Asensio in his midfield.
Rodriguez was acquired by Real in the summer of 2014 from Ligue 1 side AS Monaco in a massive £63 million transfer, but the Cucuta, Colombia native has not met expectations at the Bernabéu since then.
James had just finished his second season for Los Vikingos in May and have scored 25 goals in a total of 79 appearances in all competitions for the Spanish capital city squad, considered mediocre for his standards.
He was also not a regular starting XI player not only for Zidane but also with other former Real coaches such as Rafa Benitez and Carlo Ancelotti.
Furthermore, retaining a first team berth is not the only struggle of Rodriguez at Madrid as he is also having difficulty staying healthy to actually have more opportunity to feature for the team.
Caught Offside described Chelsea's interest in James as a potential "marquee signing" for Conte, who had led the Blues to a Premier League season-opening 2-1 win on Monday against West Ham.
Conte recently rebuffed Mourinho's comments that the other Premier League coaches are afraid to say that their teams are title contenders, saying that he is not scared of telling everybody that Chelsea is one of the contenders this season.
The report also noted that Rodriguez "continues to face an uncertain future at the Bernabéu" as Toni Kroos and Luka Modric are still expected to dominate in the midfield positions behind their trio of attackers in Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and Karim Benzema.
