Transfer Centre

Report: Chelsea plotting £75m January bid for James Rodriguez

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 18 December 2016

Chelsea are reportedly willing to pay the full £75m asking price for Real Madrid ace James Rodriguez, with Oscar's imminent exit enough to fund the deal.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is looking to bring Real Madrid star James Rodriguez to Stamford Bridge next month in a £75m deal, according to a report.

The Blues are ready to ship Brazil international Oscar to Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG when the transfer window opens, banking the club around £62m.

It is claimed by The Mirror that Chelsea now intend to use those funds to replace Oscar with Rodriguez in the coming weeks, despite the Colombian insisting this week that he is "happy" at Madrid.

Rodriguez has scored just once in 14 appearances for Los Blancos this term, seeing his performance levels dip since Zinedine Zidane took charge at the start of the year, leading to talk of a potential big-money switch to Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester United.

Chelsea are said to be the side winning the race for his signature, however, with Conte falling short of signing him during the summer window, but Madrid may again be reluctant to sell at this point due to Gareth Bale's current injury layoff.

It is claimed that Chelsea are happy to pay up the full £75m asking price for Rodriguez to push through a move, knowing that they only have to splash out a minimal amount thanks to the money brought in by Oscar's imminent sale.