A terrible waste: James Rodriguez needs move from Real Madrid, and England could be perfect

The stockpiling of good players at a very small group of clubs deprives us of some wonderful talents and giving James Rodriguez just 858 minutes of football so far this season is bordering on the sacrilegious.

It’s like keeping a Stradivarius in the cupboard under the sink; it’s like only ever taking your Ferrari 458 Spider out to drive it through the traffic calming zone, past the 10 mph ‘Please drive carefully’ sign and then back up the drive; it’s like throwing a blanket over Michaelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze. Okay maybe not the last one, but it’s a terrible waste.

This is the man whose dipping volley from 25 yards – the one that crashed in off the underside of Fernando Muslera’s crossbar against Uruguay at Brazil 2014 – remains one of the greatest goals in World Cup history.

That was the goal that had Real Madrid president Florentino Perez jumping out of his seat, so excited by what he’d seen he tried to turn the sound down with his mobile phone before trying to use the TV remote to text right-hand man Jose Angel Sanchez the message: ‘sign that man’.

Someone needs to sign Rodriguez now, someone who will play him every week, give him back his fitness and his confidence, put a smile on his face, remind him he’s only 25 and pay him the €120k a week Real Madrid do.

Maybe his brother-in-law, the Arsenal goalkeeper, David Ospina should have a word with Arsene Wenger about doing that thing he does so well – taking a Real Madrid/Barcelona cast-off (Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez) and making them feel wanted and important again. Or maybe there’s a football Einstein in Jose Mourinho’s earshot who can tug on his coat and tell to make Rodriguez the new Rooney.

He will need a certain type of gig. He might be from the Matt Le Tissier school of 30-yard screamers into the top corner but he also went to the Matt Le Tissier school of tracking back. That said he always put a shift in for Carlo Ancelotti, who did his best to make things work despite the fact that he always knew that in a team which plays with no set No. 10 and that has to allow for a Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale front three, fitting him in in his best position was ultimately going to be impossible.

He would be an interesting replacement for Oscar at Chelsea once they have cashed Shanghai SIPG’s cheque. Although it would be a challenge for Antonio Conte to make Rodriguez function alongside Eden Hazard. And if Inter Milan get their financials in order and start spending fortunes he would be a good marquee signing for them.

Real Madrid’s attitude towards their very expensive substitute still constitutes pointing at the €500m buy-out clause and shrugging their shoulders. When he spoilt the post-FIFA Club World Cup win celebrations by telling reporters he wanted out, had several offers, and would spend the next week considering them, their attitude remained the same, at least publicly.

And when the Court of Arbitration in Sport gave them an early Christmas present on Tuesday by reducing their ban on registering new signings to one window and not two, they might have wanted to march out on to the front lawn and hammer the For Sale sign into the ground, but they resisted.

So there are still a few bridges to cross. Somebody has to bid in the ball-park region of the €80m Real Madrid paid for him in 2014 – maybe closer to €60m taking into account the inevitable and notable rust that has built up over the past year. And Madrid need to accept that they will get more for him in January than they will next summer. Zidane seems to have little interest in picking him, and so every month on the sidelines that passes his price takes another hit.

When they eventually let him go Real Madrid will not miss him, such are their midfield options right now. But whoever signs him will be getting something very special if they can wind his clock back to 2014 and make him believe in himself once again. Release the Rodriguez One, we all miss watching him play.