Tottenham will be offered Real Madrid midfielder for Eriksen

Real Madrid plan to use James Rodriguez as a makeweight to drive down Tottenham’s asking price of Christian Eriksen, claims AS.

Eriksen will only have 12 months left to run on his existing Tottenham contract at the end of the season and is unlikely to renew with the English side.

The Denmark international has been heavily linked with a move to Madrid since the turn of the year after being identified as Luka Modric’s long-term replacement.

Tottenham are notoriously difficult to negotiate with and chairman Daniel Levy will still drive a high price for Eriksen if they are forced to cash-in at the end of the season.

Having signed Gareth Bale and Modric from Tottenham in the seven years, Madrid will be aware of the extremes it takes to get a deal over the line with the north London outfit and are already preparing for it again.

Rodriguez has entered the final six months of his two-year loan with Bayern Munich and is expected to return to Madrid.

The Colombia international has been linked with a shock move to Arsenal this month but Madrid plan to use the 27-year-old as a makeweight to sign Eriksen in the summer.

Rodriguez is open to a Premier League move but his wage demands could prove a huge stumbling block in convincing him to join Tottenham, if they are open to the idea of signing the creative midfielder.

Tottenham operate under a strict wage structure and have only made allowances for the likes of Harry Kane.

Signing Rodriguez would almost certainly require Tottenham to break their structure and that could prove an issue they fail to overcome and prevent Madrid from driving Eriksen’s asking price down.

Of players that have started at least five Bundesliga games this season, only Kerem Demirbay (one every 23.8 minutes of action) requires fewer minutes per key pass than Rodriguez (one every 26.9 minutes).