Journalist, Dean Jones has given his verdict on Newcastle United’s pursuit of Leicester City’s James Maddison.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, Jones said that the club would be ‘willing’ to spend around £60 million for the Foxes’ star
Additionally, The Northern Echo have reported that Maddison is Newcastle’s number-one target in January.
Leicester paid Norwich City a fee of £20 million to sign the midfielder back in the summer of 2018. The Coventry-born star has played 185 times for his current club.
Maddison was called-up by Gareth Southgate to England’s World Cup squad. However, the 26-year-old didn’t make a single appearance throughout the tournament.
Jones stated:
“Generally, they’ve been pretty careful with their spending.
“But they did splash out on Isak and they spent over £60million on him. I’m told that they would be willing to pay that for Maddison.”
TIF’s view on Jones’ comments…
We believe that Maddison would be a fine addition to Newcastle’s squad, he’d add plenty of goal contributions to a side that already scores for fun.
Maddison has seven goals and four assists from 13 Premier League matches. His average league rating is 7.52 on Sofascore, the highest of any player in Leicester’s squad.
As for Newcastle, they’re flying high, sitting in third in the league and have only conceded 11 goals, the joint-best in the league. Only Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur have scored more league goals than the Magpies’ tally of 29.
Should he make the move to Tyneside, Maddison could operate in a couple of different positions. He usually plays as an attacking midfielder, but can also play out on the wing. It would give manager Eddie Howe a couple of different options to fit him into his starting eleven.
The Magpies will want to continue their momentum from the first-half of the season after the World Cup break. Bringing in another top star such as Maddison could help them remain in a Champions League spot.
£60m wouldn’t be enough to persuade Leicester to sell in January. They are still in a relegation battle and relegation would be a, possibly terminal, financial disaster for Leicester. They simply won’t risk selling their best player.