Aurelio De Laurentiis said Napoli “are prepared to make sacrifices for James Rodriguez, but we ask Real Madrid to make them too. He only ever delivered with Carlo Ancelotti.”
The President repeated his stance that €45m for the Colombia international is unreasonable, especially as he wants to sign James on loan with option to buy.
Aurelio De Laurentiis said Napoli “are prepared to make sacrifices for James Rodriguez, but we ask Real Madrid to make them too. He only ever delivered with Carlo Ancelotti.”
The President repeated his stance that €45m for the Colombia international is unreasonable, especially as he wants to sign James on loan with option to buy.
“We are all prepared to make sacrifices for James Rodriguez, but we ask Real Madrid to make them too,” De Laurentiis told Sky Sport Italia.
“We’ve not given up, but in order to break the ice we need Madrid to consider that rather than have an unhappy player sitting around, they should send him out to play. Perhaps on loan.
“I read a lot of stories that are untrue… I don’t talk to Florentino Perez about James, as we have (director of sport Cristiano) Giuntoli and an agent-friend of James, who is also our friend (Jorge Mendes), so we don’t need to talk to Florentino.
“If he were to call me, I could answer the phone, but I’ve never spoken directly to Perez, as some impudently reported.”
With Atletico Madrid also interested and a disappointing two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich, De Laurentiis doubled down on why James is desperate to join Napoli.
“It’d be a gift for him. Studying this player, I realised he only ever really delivered on two occasions, both with Carlo Ancelotti on the bench, at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
“For him, this is a guarantee of being satisfied, central to our project and decisive on the field. He has understood that, he knows, Ancelotti spoke to him and was able to motivate him.
“We’ll see what happens… we are waiting for the time to be right.”