James admission indicates Everton star’s future needs resolving

In a surprising and strange statement Everton forward James Rodriguez has revealed online that he doesn’t know who are the next opponents of the club paying his wages!

The Everton and Colombia star has been exhibiting some distracting behaviour in recent months with cryptic tweets around his future and this latest gaffe indicates that he is not really committed to the Blues and this new season.

For me the doubts first started at the end of last season when it appeared he was injured once again, as he had been so often during the season, and was unavailable for the Toffees last two Premier League fixtures as the team tried to secure European football at the end of a really inconsistent and frustrating campaign.

He was very keen to be fully healthy for Colombia in the Copa America, understandably, but there was a slight feeling in my mind anyway, that he was maybe saving himself for that competition at the expense of Everton.

I’m not criticising the Colombian but I got the feeling last season that he was never really that comfortable in English football and the Premier League. Whatever the case, as it happened he didn’t play any part in that tournament.

Then came the shock departure of Carlo Ancelotti at the beginning of June. Almost straight away stories started surfacing that Rodriguez was looking for the exit door too.

This isn’t surprising, after all Ancelotti was basically the only reason he came to Merseyside in the first place.

And seeing his football mentor return to Real Madrid after a difficult first season without fans in the grounds and in which his new team had failed to reach Europe let alone the Champions League, was likely to make him re-consider whether he was going to stay in England.

So media reports surfaced linking him with several clubs especially Italian giants Milan although these stories have gone quiet recently.

Meanwhile he has been training well and played fleetingly in the club’s pre-season matches, but as everyone knows Rafa Benitez is not his biggest fan so Rodriguez is unlikely to be a central piece of the tactical or team puzzle under the Spaniard.

Anyway, he’s been apparently isolating recently and this is the official reason why he hasn’t featured for Everton this season.

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Well now we have these latest online offerings, which suggest the player is not exactly focused on his current club or team-mates.

I think this situation has become a major distraction to the Blues season build-up and potentially their opening few fixtures and it’s time it was resolved one way or another.

There are less than two weeks to go until the closing of the transfer window and the Toffees do apparently need to raise money to get new players in before that deadline.

I don’t want the club to have failed to bring in any more players by the end of that deadline as the squad needs further additions – especially as we keep saying a right-back – so some existing squad members have to be moved on, if that’s possible.

In an ideal world James would stay, remain healthy and contribute to an improved campaign for Everton this season. I think most Blues fans would want that.

However, it doesn’t seem that this is going to be the case and so it’s best to get a fee for him now and spend that money on another player, although of course very few can replace the Colombian’s flair and technical skill.

It will be sad to see him go but in truth the Toffees need players fully committed to the cause at the start of another long and demanding Premier League campaign.