James Maddison

Should Arsenal pay 70 million for Maddison? Is he worth it?

Would You Pay 70 Million For Maddison? by Dan

If you believe reports, Arsenal want James Maddison and the player is open to moving to North London.

The issue is the third party in the equation.

In all due respect to Leicester, gone on the days when a ‘big six’ club could bully other sides in the transfer market.

The Foxes have owners who don’t need to sell assets to raise funds and can offer generous wages.

So if 70 million is their valuation for the midfielder it’s unlikely they will compromise.

Riyad Mahrez left 12 months later then he wanted. Even when he went AWOL on deadline day in August 2017, his employers wouldn’t budge because the price they quoted hasn’t been met.

Man United were negotiated up to 80million for Harry Maguire.

The hope is they might reconsider due to the sense that Brendan Rodgers isn’t the biggest fan of the 24-year old’s attitude. He was dropped for the run in to the season due to the rumoured perception that the hype was going to his head. This speculation might not help that.

It highlights the tax on English talent that a player who was dropped by a side who finished 5th and didn’t even make his nations provisional 33-man squad for the Euros could be valued so highly.

If Arteta rates the player though, he should be backed.

Having finished in our worst position in a quarter of a century, Stan Kroenke must be prepared to pay over the odds in the next month. If he doesn’t the gap between us and those who finished above us will only grow, especially considering the sums of money being spent in Manchester.

Going back to the Arsene Wenger days we were a club who were always resistant to the inflation in fees. Our desire to find value was noble yet naive.

While a Maddison is probably not worth 70 million, if we start the campaign without more creativity we will get left behind.

It’s been confirmed by numerous sources that the reason we picked Pepe over Zaha two years ago was Lille were receptive to a generous payment plan whereas Palace wanted the majority of the fee paid up front.

It’s unlikely Leicester will settle for money spread over too many instalments. Nor can I see either side finding the balance between finding players who Arsenal deem surplus to requirements who Leicester would want.

Would you pay 70 million for James Maddison?

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Tags Leicester City Maddison

87 Comments

  1. Absolutely not … how much would Silva cost? If arteta is worth anything … and my doubts are rising … surely it’s to capitalize on his man city connection and get this guy .. world class still 26 and could improve smith rowe

    1. You just said my thought.
      Grealish for 100m pounds.
      Man City would be looking to offload Bernardo Silva.
      Raheem Sterling is an interesting prospect also especially if Man City buys Harry Kane.

      Buy Sterling or Bernardo Silva or both(110m pounds can get both). Every player has a price

      People would think I’m crazy with my wishlist. But the truth is a club that wants to make progress especially after a woeful season has to invest. 110m pounds on 2 quality players is not a bad idea.

    2. Massive no.

      We could get aouar and guimares for less than Maddison and have enough left over for onana.

  2. No. He is not worth 70m pounds. And there are a lot of better alternatives.
    Asensio
    Nabil Fekir
    Aouar
    Bernardo Silva

    While would I pay 70m pounds for Maddisson when I can pay same amount for Raheem Sterling?
    I would rather go shopping at Manchester city

    1. Good points but Sterling will not be cheaper than Maddison when you factor in the 290 K per week in wages. Sterling is also a prima donna who would consider Arsenal beneath him.

  3. What a dilemma? This article is very objective and the obvious answer is yes.
    There’s though a worrying negative to him being his attitude.
    Alternatively, Arsenal could promote the much-talked-of 17 year old youngster from the academy and then buy a good stiker plus another strong central midfielder like Guimares.

  4. No hes not. Go for Nikola Vlasic. Reminds me a lot of Grealish with his playing style (minus the diving). Available for moderate price too. One of the most creative players in Europe in the past 2 seasons.

  5. Arsenal is run by brainless people, they knew for ages that they lack creative players, I will start looking out for that player from way back instead of paying over the odds for an average creative option, I bet if they did their search properly, they would have found a very good player for a very good deal

  6. No not £70 million. Trouble is we are wasting time. Our midfield is Elneny, Xhaka and Loknga whilst Partey is injured. Worse than last year when we had Odeggard. Poor management. We should buy Houssem Aouar…….absolutely IMMEDIATELY. Ermmmm…Brentford…..Next Week

    1. We can probably get Aour and Abraham for £70 this would upgrade our squad in two places insrtead of 1.

  7. Damn, Spurs bought Romero who was the best defender in Serie A last year. Fee roughly same as White fee.

    Romero is twice the player White is, so it really looks like we’ve been taken to the cleaners once again this summer.

    1. You fans always have to moan about everything and instead of backing of your players, you’d prefer to kick them down and compare them.
      White is used to the EPL already and wouldn’t need time to settle, so why is there any need to compare both deal?
      Kolasinac was best left back when we got him.
      Emerson was best left back when Chelsea got him…
      Just support any player we get and who puts on our red and white without doubting or comparing them with others.

      1. Obviously I will support White,but anything I said can’t really be claimed to be untrue:

        1) We massively overpaid for White. Agreed or not?

        2) Romero has 3 very strong seasons behind him (defensive stats, goals, MOTMs and other accolades) and is a starter for Argentina. Agreed or not?

        Stating these facts is not putting White down, but to highlight how incredibly shaky our recuitment/scouting is. Last seasons purchases were a player short of complete disaster and this summer doesn’t look better at all.

        1. I don’t think we overpaid for white.

          Maguire, Stones, Mings would all cost as much if not more and white is in the category but much younger.

          Unfortunately, you will always pay more for homegrown. Hence Maddison is 70m, Grealish 100m, White 50m. Sterling will be 50m, ramsdale 30m, Kane 150m

          This is why we should be careful about selling maitland-niles, Willock, Nelson, Nketiah too low.

  8. If Grealish is worth £100m,then Maddison is worth £70m because there is not much difference between them.The problem now is can he fit into Arteta’s conservative system?

  9. It’s amazing how EPL teams RIP each other off for English players! Even clubs outside the EPL are selling English players back to us at enormous amounts! This kind of money should be going to youth sports and clubs need a reality check!

  10. No Madison no 70 m purchases.
    What are we are cheque book club?
    Midfielders are way over rated any way.
    All they do is pass the ball to death.
    On average there are 900 passes in every PL game.
    If the average phase possession is seven touches then there are around 128 x 7 touch phase plays per game. Yet the average score line is only 2-1.
    So only one in 42 possessions leads to a goal.
    And almost none are the work of the midfeld.
    50% are CB’s and GK errors.
    20% of goals are from set pieces.
    20% come from deflections, once a season flukes and scuffed toe pokes.
    10% only involve quality multi touch passing..
    Arsenal hardly needs a midfield.
    In defense Arsenal need a top goalie
    and two top centre backs.
    In attack we need two top clinical poaches who can turn one half chance per game into a goal.
    That’s all.
    8 designated defenders (GK included)
    one AM and two goal poaches.
    Just by pass the midfed with long balls.
    So easy

      1. 2 seasons ago we couldn’t sell Martinez for 2m, he then had 10 good matches and his value went up to 20m, now you would need 50m to sign him.

        This time last year Joe Willock would have been worth 1m at best. Now he is 25m after scoring 7 goals in 14 matches.

        Football is a mad world, run by mad owners, funded by crazy sponsorship deals and followed by us stupid barstewards

  11. I’d pay the quoted 70 mils for Maddison, as long as the guarantees are provided by the coach.

    1. Get us in UCL group stages next season.
    2. The team scores at least 30+ more league goals this season than last season.
    3. Fitness permitting, Saka, Pepe, ESR and Martinelli, all four, must start at least 30 league games together with Maddison this season.

    1. MA will come up with more lies about why Martinelli can’t start regularly! This season will likely be because he played for Brazil so needs a rest till November.

  12. And we still have fans on here saying we don’t get funds 🤣 how much have we spent since Wenger left? Delusional people.

    1. Well said Martenelli, it’s not the fund we get it’s actually how we waste them that is the real issue.

    2. The financial and player asset management at Arsenal FC is beyond a joke for a supposedly “big club”.

    1. 2 seasons ago we couldn’t sell Martinez for 2m, he then had 10 good matches and his value went up to 20m, now you would need 50m to sign him.

      This time last year Joe Willock would have been worth 1m at best. Now he is 25m after scoring 7 goals in 14 matches.

      Football is a mad world, run by mad owners, funded by crazy sponsorship deals and followed by us stupid bastards.

  13. We could buy Maddison, Messi and Lakaku, i dont think the way we play and the system we use, we would still not score goals. The problem for us is the way the club and the team are run. We have very talented players in our squad being ignored or wasted, while others who are not producing play. Negative, no risk football brings Negative, no rewards results. I have very little faith we can improve next season as we are.

  14. No to Madison, he has got disciplinary issues and is too expensive. Go in for either Aouar or Bernardo Silva and we can also get Bissouma with either of them for the money paid for Madison.

  15. Very good player but not worth £70m.
    Leicester’s transfer record over the past few years is nothing short of brilliant. Paid a total of £20m for Mahrez, Kante, Drinkwater, Maguire and Chillwell and sold them for £250m. Paid £20m for Maddison and now offered for £70m. If we buy him we will putting another £50 million in their transfer kitty. No thanks!!

    1. Also to add Andrew they also finished above us while we keep crying about Arteta not having a strong squad or our players are not good enough where as on paper we should have out performed them.

  16. Very few players worth the asking price at this time of silly money beginning to be splashed around.

    My concern here is, whether rating Maddison or not, said money could be used in more economic / canny fashion spread throughout the side in this and other pressing positions.

    Given last season, if we end up with just White and Maddision at combined cost of circa 110M/120M will most Gooners feel this has addressed a number of other obvious shortcomings in the side ?

    I have purposely overlooked ASL & Tavares – although very high hopes of ASL being fast tracked.

  17. Of course I would like us to hit the ground running vs Brentford next Friday, but our transfer window management has been woeful. We have Elneny, Xhaka, injured Partey(and maybe Willock) as our midfield. I don’t think any supporter can say there is a single positive about that. I don’t know where ‘the something wrong’ at Arsenal is…..but there is something WRONG. Is it Edu, Arteta, Mr Garlick, the Board, Kroenke and Son? Something is rotten to the core, because nothing can get done. The Arsenal system is suffering from dilly dallying, confusion, paralysis, and is frozen in time. It seems in many ways we are going backwards. The season starts in one week…..what is going wrong and we need to find where the problem is and cut it out. We need a Midfield Maestro, a RB, a Goalkeeper and a forward…..NOW. We have all been ultra patient…..what is going on?

  18. Bissouma and Bernardo Silva will both cost slightly more than 70m which is the asking price for Madison(madness), with Grealish move to City Silva will be surplus and available, over half of that some for a player twice as good as Madison is a gift

  19. He is worth the price. In today market you hardly get value, every player is overpriced and especially the English players considering tax, I will support whoever we buy and not been fickle like so many fans who want Grealish but think £70m is too much of a price for Maddison whereas we all know Grealish was bought for £100m, so tell me if Maddison doesn’t worth the price, does Grealish worth £100m?

    The positive is, we are serious about players of that calibration it shows we are now interested in been a proper big club again, if we get the deal done and with proper RB , I think we are good for next season

    1. Only Man City could have bought Grealish for that insane amount.

      Grealish has not won any World Cup, he has not not any trophy either. He is not worth 100m pounds.

      We should be prudent in our spending.

      Arteta learnt something from Pep.

      He is like a kid who wants expensive toys that his parents can’t afford.

      Unfortunately, we don’t have the financial muscle as Money City.

      If it was a discussion about whether Raheem Sterling should be bought for 70m pounds, most of us would jump at that because we know that Sterling is a better value for money.
      Sterling will score more goals.

      Aouar is available for 30m pounds.
      Leicester City is a greedy and difficult club to do business with. They see us as a direct rival and won’t want to strengthen us.

      1. unless we getting the midfielder Arsenal needs I don’t see the point getting Maddison for that price. We have Willock give him and Nelson a run

        1. Give him and Nelson a run? How many opportunities do you think they needed to get before they start performing well?
          This is not a testing ground but a real football club, players don’t get too many chances, they have been given enough opportunities and what have they done with them?

      2. Willock is a different type of player to Maddison and Auour but the kid must have something special to exploit. You dont score 7 goals on the trot from midfield especially for Newcastle and he helped them immensely in staying up. Willock is a better player than people give him credit for! If he was at another team, we would be saying buy him! Snap their hands off for 25 mil! But he is ours and he is a talent Arteta should be excited about.

    1. Willock is more of an old fashioned box to box midfielder. He is not very creative, he is not very technical, he is not great defensively. He is more like an inside right back in the day. Hence Bruce got something out of him, whereas Emery, Wenger and Arteta have failed.

      Unless we switched to a 433 Willock does not really have a chance with us. If we switched to 433 it would suit more of our players too. I think Smith Rowe, Saka, lokonga, Willock and maitland-niles could all play the left and right in the middle 3. Whilst Torreira, Partey, Xhaka and even Elneny would be able to play the more holding role.

  20. There is so much more Arsenal could do to upgrade the squad with the expenditure of £70 million Leicester City want for James Maddison. There are innumerable potential players, particularly midfielders mentioned by many on JA, who will improve Arsenal rather than “putting all the eggs in the James Maddison basket.”
    Leicester City will only sell if a club offers over the odds. Should Arsenal comply they are strengthening an opposition club to give them future purchasing power, which potentially puts them out of sight.
    Edu, Arteta and Garlick better have a plan B, because procrastination is a losing strategy. Arsenal management is running out of time to restore my faith (and many others) in “the process”. Throwing money at Leicester City for James Maddison may impress some people, but to me it is not the answer and would be poor allocation of resources.

  21. English players are priced at a premium but this one is on the high. Leicester will use a fraction of the 70m to buy Pereira of W/Bromwich. He has better stats than Maddison.

    Why cant we go for Pereira straight or any other one.

    1. Abul, unfortunately the boat has sailed on Matheus Pereira, as he has chased the big money in Saudi Arabia.

  22. No, 70 mil is way too high. There is a premium on English players at the moment while there are a bunch of good bargains available in Europe because clubs are in financial distress. Arsenal have yet to show they appreciate this much less that they intend to exploit it.

  23. Why not buy him for $70m.

    Just chalk it up to yet another of the stupid decisions made by the Arsenal wonder-kids (Edu and Arteta).

    I am afraid this transfer window might be Arsenal’s last chance to get back into the top 4.

    Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (the Holding company of AFC) are being sued by the city of St Louis for around $1bn in damages caused by moving the Rams NFL Team to LA.

    1. Top 4 no chance, have you seen City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea squads not to mention the clever buys they have been doing to address the issues of the team. Man United bought Sancho & Varane, city bought Grealish and Chelsea are in pole position to sign Lukaku. What are we doing first over paying for an overhyped Brighton defender & two future promises. We are not even addressing our biggest concern of last year the midfield we don’t have a proper CM a creator some one who can control the tempo of game and transition our game. All we have in middle is side ways and back wards. We completely ignore our main problem area to go and spend money on unwanted areas apart from the backup left back we signed.

      1. 👍 Logic, unfortunately many appear not to see that Arsenal are waving from the dock, as the those and other ships weigh anchor and sail away.
        The Club is falling further behind the pace, as far as transfers in and out are concerned. The Hale End Academy will have to produce some great footballers and Arsenal will have to give them a chance.

      2. Agreed Logic. If we sign Madison it will be 140 million already spent with the squad still looking not strong enough. And if Brendan Rodgers can’t handle the guy’s attitude there is no way the Arsenal coach will manage to.

        However as he is proving to be the checkbook manager and not the youth developer he was touted to be, we should let him conduct business the way he want with expectations that it will reflect on the results.

        Arsenal have a tough start this season, the first six games will be a good indicator if there is any progress.

        1. HH, you hit the nail on head. When Arteta came to club all we could hear from fans here was how good he is with youth and how he completely transformed sterling etc etc but it turns out he is a cheque book manager and has no eye for talent and neither has the ability to groom young players. I am afraid by the time this love affair of Arteta will be finished we will be in a dark place where it will be very difficult for us to come out of.

  24. You are right gunners forlife let forget Madison’s go Aouar or Silva used the remaining money Bissouma and Abraham

  25. No way, we have already over paid for one player now we are going to do it for another but then no surprise. This is how we have been operating for 2-3 years, throwing money on players twice their worth then when they perform to their actual value we start pointing fingers at owner for not providing enough funds. I am not a fan of kronke but I can not blame him for funds in last 4-5 seasons.

    1. Logic, and who made the decision to dismantle the scouting network? For example Steve Morrow is gone, the man behind the scouting and development of many of the great prospects, currently at Hale End.
      The financial and player asset management at Arsenal is farcical; buy high and sell low, sell promising young players and keep underperforming bench warmers.

      1. I agree Ozzie, it’s been going on for too long. We seriously need to get the right person in to look at our finencial dealings. With regards to young players unfortunately it all depends on the manager.

        1. Like I’ve commented below, our management team dealings need to be seriously looked into. I guess we are not able to make a lot of signings except the few we’ve already did is because of Garlick. May be Arteta, Edu and Co don’t have a free hand in finalizing the deals like they did before Garlick came into the club. Else, we would have already unveiled a couple of Barca castaways and Sergio Ramos as our new signings this summer. All our summer signings so far are young prospects with scope for huge improvements and ,more importantly, will have a good resale value in the next 3-5 seasons if managed properly.

      2. Owners are just investors and decision makers. They make the final decisions on how the club is run by listening to the proposals from the management team. If our management team had proposed the dismantling of our scouting network backed with their logic (which any owner with no footballing brain wouldn’t have understood), the owners would have just authorized it. It wasn’t the owners who called the management team and ordered the dismantling of the scouting network. It’s the other way around. Our management team might have felt threatened by the presence of our scouting network and they might have proposed to our owners to relieve them of their roles.

        You may wonder why our management team might have felt threatened by the presence of the scouting network at our club. Any report on prospective player from the scouting network varies significantly from the one provided by the players’ agents. If you dig deeper into our signings post Arsene Wenger era, excluding Martinelli, Tierney and maybe Pepe, every one of them is super-agent recommended. Had our owners asked for a second opinion on those players from our scouting team before authorizing the investment, it may put our management team in a tight spot.

        It may be just my speculation. I’ll leave you make your own decision, mate. Feel free to let me know of it.

  26. The point is, what will James Maddison brings to the table for Arsenal to make immense profits if they happen to splash £70m on him this summer transfer window to bring him to the Emirates Stadium?

    Well, I wouldn’t know if he’ll bring much success for Arsenal in terms of helping them to make the top-four places finish next season or not. For, if Arsenal do sign him this summer, it’s a big gamble that they’ve taken that could pay off with handsome in high dividends for them. Which no Gooners including myself is sure it’ll pay off handsomely or not. But the gamble maybe worth taking the risk to see if it’ll world extraordinarily at the end.

    However, there is a one bigger gamble that I’ll like to see Arsenal stake their money on it this summer. Which I believe if the do will not fail to pay off handsomely for them next season in the PL and in the 2 domestic Cup competitions if Arsenal sign Lionel Messi this summer whose signing is reported will be on the free as his now a free agent after Barcelona failed to keep him.

    If Arsenal do sign Messi this summer, his singin could turnout to be the Arsenal messiah signing. Who will liberate Arsenal and set them free from the house of bondage in the Premier League leading the Gunners to win the title next season’s campaign God’s willing.

    God helps those who helped themselves. Therefore, Arsenal should this summer transfer window help themselves by singing the now available for signing Lionel Messi before PSG snap him off to deny Arsenal from getting him signed for us.

  27. If Greelish Worth 100 Why Madison And Greelish is not better than Madison
    Greelish Has Speed Madison Shooting, Free kick,Short Dribbling, Madison is the Complete What we Need Now
    He Will help us more than Greelish

  28. Yes and No. Yes in the sense that he will be an upgrade to Smith Rowe and he can add goals and creativity. No in the sense that the money we can spend on just one player can be spent to buy two Lyon young and upcoming talents in Aouar and Guimaires who can improve two positions in our Squad. I would prefer we spend that money on Aouar and Guimaires. These two are players that we can come to sell to big clubs for 70 million+ in the next two seasons because they are young and they are improving every season. Edu needs to wake up. Arsenal should have sold Xhaka, Nketia and Bellerin.
    Signing Abraham, Bissouma/Guimaires, Max Aarons and Aouar/ Nabil Fiker can propel Arsenal into the top 6

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