Arsenal & Man Utd Preparing £60m+ Offers For South American Attacker

The opening of the summer transfer window is fast approaching so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe. Today, Arsenal and Manchester United are linked with James Rodriguez….

Arsenal and Manchester United are among the clubs preparing big-money bids for James Rodriguez as the unsettled attacker looks to leave Real Madrid the summer, according to the Express.

Rodriguez joined Madrid from AS Monaco in the summer of 2014 after catching the eye with some superb performances for Colombia at the World Cup finals in Brazil.

However, after an encouraging start to life in Spain, the 24-year-old has fallen out-of-favour under Zinedine Zidane since he took over from Rafa Benitez in January with the French legened leaving Rodriguez on the bench for key games including all four legs of their Champions League matches against Wolfsburg and Man City.

It seems the attacker is fed up with life on the bench at the Bernabeu as the Express are citing a report from Spanish outlet AS which claims that Rodriguez has called a meeting with Madrid directors where he’s set to inform them he wants to leave this summer.

The former Porto star still has a contract until 2020 and president Florentino Perez is understood to be keen on keeping hold of him but the newspaper says that Arsenal and Man Utd are ready to test their resolve with offers in the region of £63m – which is what Madrid paid Monaco two years ago.

Arsene Wenger is under pressure to spend big after the Gunners blew their best chance to win the title in a decade and Rodriguez could be the sort of marquee signing that would get a lot of disgruntled supporters back on side.

United are also expected to be active in the transfer market this summer after another disappointing campaign under Louis van Gaal and it would certainly be a statement of intent if they could lure Rodriguez to Old Trafford – especially if they can’t offer Champions League football.

However, Man City, Bayern Munich and Juventus are also named as potential suitors for the Colombian while the Express suggests that Chelsea could look to do some sort of player swap deal involving Madrid target Eden Hazard, so the competition could be fierce.

READ MORE –> Arsenal transfer news | Man Utd transfer news

It’s certainly going to be interesting to see where Rodriguez ends up if he does manage to force a move away from Madrid but I’d love to see him come to the Premier League as I can see him flourishing if he’s given a more prominent role at a new club.