Arsenal have been encouraged to pick up a loan deal for out-of-favour Bayern Munich playmaker James Rodriguez, though any deal would likely hinge on the future of their own star in the shadows, Mesut Ozil.
The German has gone from missing from matchday squads through illness or back spasms, while manger Unai Emery has readily admitted omitting the £350,000-a-week midfielder from his 18-man list simply for tactical reasons or because certain games are “not for him”.
Ozil, through that mixture of injury and omission, has featured in just 13 of 22 Premier League games so far this season and was an unused substitute at Bournemouth where Emery said the 30-year-old would have struggled with the “physicality and intensity” of Eddie Howe’s side.
Similarly, Rodriguez, who has six months left on a two-year loan deal from Real Madrid which was intended to revive his career, has started just seven Bundesliga games all season, with the last of them coming in early November.
There would have to be a long chain of events for the Colombian to replace Ozil in north London, including a buyer happy to take on the Arsenal man’s astronomic wages, but who would you rather see pulling the strings at the Emirates?
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