Would James and Leao swap make sense for Everton

Stories again claim Everton forward James Rodriguez will be leaving the club very soon and might now be involved in a swap deal for Milan forward Rafael Leao.

It has always been likely the Colombian star would be exiting Everton once Carlo Ancelotti left although there was hope he might still see out the second year of his deal at the Toffees.

The obvious destination were he to leave would have been Real Madrid and the chance to link up again with his mentor Carlo Ancelotti.

However, the player himself seems to have ruled that out and the strongest media hints have been that he would in fact end up in Italy at AC Milan. Now comes rumours he could be used in a deal to bring Milan striker Leao to Goodison Park.

The Portuguese youngster has been linked with Everton before and according to these new reports if he is prepared to swap Milan for Merseyside, then James would move the other way.

This would be a momentus decision by Rafa Benitez. As I’ve mentioned before the Colombian star is a superb technician and a highly skilled and creative footballer. At his best he’s as good a playmaker as you’ll see anywhere in Europe.

But despite his talent and star quality, he is so often injured and unavailable that it is very difficult to build a side around him and this seems to be the view of Benitez as well.

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Letting Rodriguez leave is going to be very controversial though, especially for a manger who doesn’t exactly have a lot of goodwill to start with among Evertonians.

So sweetening the departure of James by bringing in a very highly-regarded young forward like Leao might seem a necessary and expedient approach.

Everton haven’t had much luck with signing very young strikers and given the fiasco over Moise Kean (a situation that still hasn’t been resolved) could be reluctant to go down that road again.

Still the Portuguese player has more experience than Kean and is a highly talented forward with pace who is particularly well suited to playing either behind the centre-forward or on the left.

Leao would then represent another potential candidate to solve the need for additional attacking width, flair and goalscoring threat that the Blues have.

What do you think would Leao be a good bet for Everton?

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