Arsenal encouraged in shock pursuit of Bayern Munich ace

Arsenal have been given encouragement in a shock deal to sign James Rodriguez on loan for the remainder of the season, claims the London Evening Standard.

Unai Emery wants to strengthen his Arsenal squad this month but remarkably revealed there is no money to spend and the club can only afford loan signings until the summer.

Arsenal have been left crippled financially after handing out enormous deals to Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil 12 months ago.  

The Gunners are in talks with Barcelona to sign Denis Suarez on loan for the remainder of the season but now there is also a chance they could prise Rodriguez away from Bayern Munich.

The Bundesliga side signed Rodriguez from Real Madrid on a two-year loan deal and the Colombia international has entered the final six months of his stay at the Allianz Arena.

Neither Bayern nor Rodriguez are keen to make his stint permanent and the former are even open to cancelling his loan deal this month, but that would require a suitor to pay a £3m fee to release Rodriguez from his current agreement.

However, any deal that would see Rodriguez move to Arsenal could hinge on whether Emery’s side can shift Ozil before the end of the month.

The former Germany international does not feature in Emery’s plans but Arsenal will struggle to find anyone willing to match his staggering salary, reportedly in excess of £300,000-a-week.

Since the start of last season, Rodriguez is making a key pass more frequently (every 25.6 minutes of action) than any other player to have made at least 20 appearances in the Bundesliga.