Skysports’ Guillem Balague: Alvaro Morata in Chelsea book, Man United favourites to sign James Rodriguez

Sky Sports journalist Guillem Balague has provided strong updates on duo Real Madrid players Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez amid interest from Manchester United and Chelsea.

Zinedine Zidane is having selection issues this summer, as he has a number of individuals considered second-choice but who are more than good enough to have a permanent role at a top club elsewhere

At Santiago Bernabeu, Alvaro Morata, James Rodriguez, Isco, Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez all fall in the same category, and it will be interesting to see who remain and goes with the La Liga giants tipped to bring in big names to the club this summer.

According to the SkySports Balague, he expects the Colombian international to leave the Bernabeu, and gives hope to Red Devils who are in his eyes the favourites to land the Colombian international.

“James is wanted by many teams in Europe, and for me Manchester United are the favourites to get him,” he told Sky Sports.

“His agent is Jorge Mendes who is very close to Jose Mourinho. He would be willing to help a team on the up, and Manchester United with the investment coming in the summer should be contenders for everything. Although it’s one thing to be contenders and another thing to win.”

Having shown his ability and quality with Colombia and in previous seasons with Monaco and Porto, James Rodriguez can offer so much more for United as he’s shown what he’s capable of with scoring 11 goals in 13 assists across 31 competitions in his limited time for Real Madrid this season.

James Rodriguez

As for his team-mates, Balague believes that the Spaniard could also be facing the exit door but his situation is a little more complicated as the former Juventus man is waiting to find out what Chelsea can do.

We’ve also been linked with a move for Everton top-scorer Romelu Lukaku, but the Skysports pundits Balague is convinced that Alvaro Morata would be a better option at Stamford Bridge next season.

“Morata wants to see what happens with Chelsea – there is a choice to be made between Romelu Lukaku and Morata, the first one preferred by the club and the second by Antonio Conte. I think Morata will suit Chelsea much better. His movement, the knowledge of the coach, his intelligence would suit the London outfit.”

Morata has scored 20 goals in 39 games this season, and a move to Old Trafford would see him finally work with Mourinho having spent some under the Portuguese boss while at Real Madrid in 2015, only for Jose Mourinho is leave 2013. I disagree with Balague claiming Morata would be a better signing at Chelsea than United, as the Spanish forward would undoubtedly be a better fit for us and would perhaps be even more profile with a consistent run of games.