Everton refused to meet Rodrigo’s hefty salary demands ahead of his move to Qatar.
According to Football Transfers, the forward demanded the Toffees cough up £200,000 per week to lure him to Merseyside this summer.
Rodrigo’s fine goalscoring form for Leeds United had attracted interest away from Yorkshire, with his reported £3 million relegation release clause putting a number of clubs on high alert.
Everton were said to be interested in snapping up the 32-year-old on a bargain transfer, however he is now nearing a move to Al Rayyan after the Qatari club agreed to pay his wages.
Rodrigo wanted Everton to double his salary after raking in around £100,000 per week with the Whites, with Sean Dyche’s side quickly pulling out of their pursuit when they didn’t want to pay him such a staggering amount.
Rodrigo would have been a good signing for Everton – but not £200k per week ‘good’
Rodrigo looked to be a huge coup at £3 million earlier this summer, with the Spaniard having netted 13 goals during a terrible campaign that ended in relegation for Leeds United.
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The former Valencia man was one of few positives from their season, with Micah Richards hailing him at the start of the last campaign as ‘brilliant’ in his attempt to fill the void of Raphinha.
With Everton’s limited budget, their pursuit of Rodrigo looked sensible and it was disappointing when it didn’t come to fruition.
However, the news that the attacker was demanding £200k-a-week makes the Toffees’ failure to lure him to Goodison Park a lot more reasonable.
Rodrigo would have been earning double the likes of Jordan Pickford, James Tarkowski and Amadou Onana and certainly wouldn’t have been offering double the reward for his signature.
If Rodrigo preferred a move to Qatar then so be it, Everton still have plenty of options and they need to be careful to balance the quality of their signings and their nervy financial situation – a situation that would have definitely been worsened by Rodrigo’s pay packet.