Jesé wants to stay at Real Madrid despite return of Álvaro Morata
Should he stay or should he go? That's the question facing Jesé as Zinedine Zidane holds his future in his hands, the return of Álvaro Morata complicating his position even further.
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Zinedine Zidane faces a sensitive issue this summer: The future of Jesé Rodríguez. The talented canterano wants to stay at his spiritual home, but would his career be better served elsewhere? The idea at the club blanco for now is that Morata will stay in the squad and enter the rotation with Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo. Names that don't promise much space or time for Jesé. The Canary Islander already suffered, mostly in silence, on the bench last season playing just 26.7% of available minutes for the team, 1,252 minutes to be exact.
Jesé wants to stay at Real Madrid
The intention for now from madridista no.20 is to stay at the casa blanca, but he finds himself between a sword and a wall as the Spanish saying goes. The wall is that his contract comes to an end in 2017, one he signed just before making the step up to the first team from the cantera on €1.2 million a-year. The sword is a crucial meeting with Zinedine Zidane, where he must look the manager in the eye and ask him what his plans are for Real Madrid's forgotten prodigy. The two have a long relationship stretching back to Zidane's days as Ancelotti's assistant and Jesé wants a direct answer about his future at the club.
With two number 9's already on the payroll, Jesé's roll would become substitute for Cristiano Ronaldo or Bale, where Lucas Vázquez threatens and has already staked a claim, the preferred substitute for one of the inverted wing positions. Vazquez came on in the 75th minute of the Champions League final for Karim Benzema, Jesé did not. Morata is also perfectly happy playing on the right and left of a central striker giving Zidane more options and leaving Rodríguez with less. Ironically, while both were at Real Madrid Castilla, it was Morata shunted out wide left or right to accomodate Jesé in the centre.
Jesé is preaching patience for now, the transfer market doesn't close for another 49 days and he is not short of offers - Espanyol and Bayer Leverkusen to the fore, along with a host of interested Premier League clubs (Jesé's direct style and physical game looks perfect for England) - and with the possibility of a Morata sale not completely out of the question should the price be right. The preseason withholds its sentence.