Guido Rodriguez has been heavily linked with leaving Real Betis, either in January or at the end of the season. The World Cup winning midfielder is out of contract next summer, and has attracted interest from clubs keen on picking him up on a free transfer.
Barcelona and Manchester United are just two of the clubs that have been linked with Rodriguez in recent months. The Catalans see the Argentine as a suitable replacement for Oriol Romeu, who has struggled since arriving from Girona during the summer.
However, Betis have not given up on retaining Rodriguez’s services. Sporting Director Ramon Planes told Radio MARCA Sevilla (via Marca) that they are desperate to agree a new contract with him.
“I’ve always said that there are two parts. The one we can influence is doing everything so that Guido can continue at Betis. We did it in the summer, which has a lot of merit in rejecting the offers that were made for him. It would have been easy to accept them and we didn’t, we continue to give him that affection and that interest, those negotiations are still ongoing.
“Today he is here, seeing the facilities. He is a magnificent boy, on a human level he is tremendously humble, and I said to him ‘look, you are going to enjoy all this’, and he laughed. One more demonstration that we love him is that he is here today as captain of the team and that he sees that the club has a project and we would like him to be there.”
It remains to be seen whether Real Betis can convince Rodriguez to sign on, but one thing for certain is that they won’t give up in doing so.