Arsenal have stepped up their pursuit to sign midfielder James Maddison and according to talkSPORT, the club have made a cash-plus-player deal to Leicester City.
The report cites Football London: “Arsenal have opened negotiations over a summer transfer for Leicester’s James Maddison, reports claim.
“According to football.london, the north London club has offered a player-plus-cash deal to sign the England international with their £60m asking price a stumbling block for the Emirates hierarchy.
“The report suggests Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah are available for transfer this summer.”
Will Arsenal be able to land James Maddison?
James Maddison has seen his form dip during the 2020-21 season but he still remains one of the top playmakers in English Premier League.
The failure to secure a Champions League spot could have prompted Leicester to part ways with the 24-year-old but time and again, Brendan Rodgers has made it clear that Maddison is not up for sale.
Rodgers said in a recent interview: “In conversations with the club, we don’t have to sell. That’s something that’s been made clear. The players want to stay. It’s a really exciting time at the club.
“There’s lots of gossip and speculation around but I’m loving working with the guys here, they love being here, and we certainly have no need to sell. So I would suspect we’re looking to keep our best players.”
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Leicester will not be able to lower their demands since have to pay between 10 or 15 per cent of the transfer fee to Norwich, the club from which they had signed James Maddison in 2018.
The three players that have been named in this report are nowhere close to Maddison’s talents so we expect the Foxes to reject this offer without giving it much thought.
All in all, we don’t think Arsenal will be able to sign James Maddison this time around since Leicester value him at around £60 million and the Gunners will just not be able to gather such a steep sum.
Arsenal though are not sitting with folded hands because apart from the Englishman, the Gunners are also trying to bring back Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid and Mikel Arteta’s side have also been linked with his teammate Isco.
