James Maddison has emerged as a midfield target for Arsenal in this transfer window with the Leicester City man seen as the ideal player to help the Gunners with creativity.
The former Norwich City midfielder has developed into one of the finest players in the Premier League in the last few seasons.
Arsenal had Martin Odegaard on loan at the Emirate last season, but they have been unable to secure his return so far.
With a move for the Norwegian difficult, they have turned to other targets and one of them is Maddison.
The Englishman is one of Leicester’s key men and they have been one of the toughest clubs to negotiate with in recent transfer windows.
They will not make things easy for the Gunners with Sky Sports reporting that they have no intention of selling him and it will take a bid in excess of £70m to convince them to sell.
Arsenal spent around that amount to sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille, which is a record fee for them.
It is unlikely that they will break the bank again to bring a creative midfielder into their squad.
They have handed Emile Smith Rowe a new contract and might trust the young Englishman with their creative responsibilities in the upcoming campaign.
I say go for Maddison for two reasons one being we desperately need him or someone like him in that position and the other is if we get Maddison we will weaken Leicester who are one of our main rivals for the fourth position in the league
Why waste money on ageing maddison when we have young willock who scores a lot of goals?
Maddison (who at just 24 is NOT “ageing” MATTHEW, above) is sadly an unrealistic so called “target” simply because of price. I have never taken this constant rumour seriously simply for that reason and still don’t!
IMO his top quality is not in doubt and but for Kroenke… well!
aging at 24? oh my….
Go get him. I think £60M is the max though. Lets test leister resolve and put the offer in
overhyped overpriced player for being British. Not worth 70m. realistic value should be 35-40m.
I agree Arsenal could buy two top class international midfielders for this money and have change. Arsenal missed Maddison when he was at Norwich City. They have to look for the next James Maddison, either in the British leagues or a non British player without the premium. So far Lokonga looks the goods for the future, even for now.
Good morning Sir Arteta,
If you’re spending 70m on one player you are simply just funding another club transfer market…why not get Mathieus perriera who is skillful, gets goals from the midfield premier league proven and get a CM or CDM in the likes of Koopmeirs,Bissouma and Renato Sanchez and a RB.🤔
Let’s get him nomatter price Leicester asking
Imagine if City said we have KDB, we don’t need Mahrez, Bernado Silva etc. The small-club mentality has become the norm! We need depth! We can’t go into the season with one out and out attacking midfielder! I would love to see Madders come in and smash the PL for the next 6 to 7 years!
👍👍👍. Well said. Too many ppl are getting used to settling and not having that ambition. which is weird because often it’s kroenke who gets the accusation, yet ppl can’t recognize when they are giving in to his lowered expectations of the club. Odegarrd is not ambition, Maddison is.
Strange comment RSH. I think you will find that worldwide Odergaard is a much more highly rated prospect than Maddison. I don’t get why you call Odegaard less ambitious?
And as you know we do not have limitless funds, so cannot buy every player that we would like. We are ambitious in my sense of the word, but if you believe that ambition only relates to the cash you have to spend, then of course we are failing this season.
who rates odegaard more highly? in name only because he was a hype signing for Real Madrid when he was 15. Since then he’s not done much, cant make Madrid squad, and is just okay on all of his loans. Odegaard is pushing to leave Madrid yet again because he believes we are the easier option. I dont want a player that wants an easy option because they can’t cut it at the club they acutally want to be at.
if Odegaard was rated higher his loan would’ve been seen as a huge statement and we wouldve been considered a bigger threat in January. Not a single opposition fan was afraid of us signing him tho, and his impact was minimal. In an alternate universe where Maddison had come on loan instead that would have been way bigger of a deal, and not just for the optics.
Do we need to sign a back-up for Maddison too, after all, you wished for us to sign a backup for Partey this season as you feared he might get injured this season? Maddison too went through that phase last season, for the record.
If you wish Arsenal to splash big on players, breaking the FFP rules like ManC did, might as well back the club to join the European Super League too.
There’s a lot of unrealistic fans out there Vasc. The more they cost, the more fans assume they are the best players.
No chance
Always rated Maddison but at £70m well overpriced. Never understood why British based players command such overinflated prices. Paying £50m for Ben White comes into the same category imo.
Its because of the overseas player cap in the EPL Andrew, brought in to nurture British talent.
We have to have a certain no of Brits in the squad, so the best ones cost a fortune.
pay the money and act like a big club. so many ppl concerned over looking and being embarrased by transfer fees. United spent loads on their signings and they are back in UCL where they wanted to be and are easily earning that money back. We already have young talent with potential. Need to add proven EPL stars. Odegaard interest is just unambitious scrap that some fans will get behind because they still think about his early hype. He’s not come close to it though.
Idk whether we have people with creative minds in the administrative sector at the club. Aston Villa wanted Smith Rowe it is simple swap him and add around £60m and land Grealish it’s simple this man can’t refuse moving to the emirates. Otherwise I don’t see sense in that Madison thing, it’s a repetition of the Pepe deal
Madison has never had an injury free season as Leicester and his injuries have all been long term with the least lasting over a month. 70 mil is way too much
No chance. Arsenal are wasting time on this one.
Would be a good signing but I don’t believe it regarding this price tag.