The reason Arsenal didn’t sign this midfielder is all too familiar

James Maddison was linked with a summer move to Arsenal, much to the excitement of Gooners.

The Englishman is one of the best midfielders in England, and who wouldn’t want him on their team?

However, the deal failed to materialise and Football London has now given more insight into what happened.

They claim that Arsenal never officially made an approach for him. However, the Gunners used intermediaries to test if a swap deal involving a few of their players plus cash would work.

But Leicester wanted a straight cash deal worth around £60million. Arsenal was unwilling to pay that, and they moved for Martin Odegaard for half the price instead.

Just Arsenal Opinion

Unless you’re pretending, this wouldn’t come as a surprise to you because it isn’t the first time that Arsenal has missed out on a top target because of money.

That being said, Odegaard hasn’t been a bad signing and Maddison has made a very poor start to this campaign.

The Norwegian is younger (22) than the former Norwich City star (24) and has already proven to be a fit for Mikel Arteta’s system when he spent the second half of last season on loan at the Emirates.

If Odegaard continues to develop his game, he could become a better Premier League player than Maddison and in that way, we won’t regret missing out on the Englishman.

Tags James Maddison

10 Comments

  1. Are we talking about the same Martin Odergaard that signed for Arsenal? I dont recognise the description of him in the article.

  2. Are we talking about the same financial restraints that affected previous managers, but were never recognised by some?

    1. Yeah, Peter Chek, Mesut Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang all came dirt cheap so did Chambers, Xhaka, Perez, Gabriel?

      1. Dirt cheap compared to the money spent in this last window Loose Cannon, wouldn’t you say?
        Ramsdale versus Chech?
        Pepe versus Lacazette?
        Aubemeyang was bought by Gazidis by the way and all the players you mention were bought over a four year period, not one transfer window.

      1. Were they? I haven’t seen that quoted by any official communication… I do remember that we wanted Griezmann (as per his autobiography) and Suarez (as per liverpools admission) only for gazidis to mess both deals up, by not offering the money to seal the two deals.
        I can give you other examples… such as UE wanting Zaha, but I’m sure you know of others anyway.

        1. it sounds like you’re suggesting “Gazidis” didn’t offer enough, not that we didn’t have the funds…as for Zaha, we paid way over the number for Pepe, so from a financial standpoint that doesn’t prove your point whatsoever…it’s clear that Wenger didn’t want higher-priced “superstar” players, who might have usurped his monopolized control over the locker room…just look at what happened to Sanchez when he wouldn’t kiss the ring anymore…that move was in Wenger’s best interest, or so he must have thought, and not in the best interests of the club as a whole…this likewise led to the boneheaded “wag the dog” re-upping of Ozil, a far more manageable personality, at that time, from an increasingly fragile managerial perspective

  3. Maddison has yet to regain the form he showed prior to his bad injury and let’s hope this continues this weekend.Neither he nor Odegaard appeal much to me but I only hope the Norwegian produces the goods in the months ahead.

  4. Neither Odegaard nor Maddison are up to much this season so far. I THINK Maddison is a proven top player but injury prone.

    Odegaard is far from Prem proven as yet and may not, or may, ever be.

    Not a player to set Gooner pulses racing as yet though, I suggest! Probably our least effective buy of this last summer, though it is still early days, I do accept!

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