Arsenal have made contact with Real Madrid over the possibility of signing James Rodriguez on an initial loan deal, according to reports.

An exclusive from Miguel Delaney in the Independent reports that Arsenal have made contact over the signing through intermediaries. The Gunners are keen on an initial loan deal with the option to buy later.

James is currently on loan at Bayern Munich, but the German club are not averse to the possibility of returning the player to Madrid to be re-loaned.

Real Madrid were already planning to sell the midfielder at the end of the season anyway, with Napoli and Arsenal interested. However, Unai Emery’s transfer team are seemingly trying to push the deal through sooner.

As for the player himself, James reportedly wants to fight for his place in Madrid. Given his parent club’s lack of interest in him though, that hope will likely prove futile.

James made his return to the pitch over the weekend, after a knee injury kept him out for most of November and December. He made a very brief 12-minute cameo from the bench, creating one chance nonetheless.

Over the season, the 27-year-old has three goals and two assists in 651 minutes, one goal contribution every 130 minutes. Not a bad record, but clearly not enough to earn him many starts, as he’s still only on seven in all competitions. We’ll see if this story has any legs in the coming fortnight.