Arsenal is reportedly closing in on the signing of James Maddison this summer after they made the Leicester City midfielder a top transfer target.
The Englishman has emerged as a target as they look to add some creativity to their midfield.
They had originally wanted to bring back Martin Odegaard, but that is proving too tough as it appears he will stay at Real Madrid.
They have also registered their interest in Manuel Locatelli, but the Italian wants to join Juventus instead.
Maddison is now their latest target and it isn’t a straightforward task to sign a player from high-flying Leicester City.
The Foxes finished above Arsenal in the last campaign and have been spending impressively in this transfer window.
Despite their recent impressive Premier League campaigns, Arsenal remains the bigger club.
The transfer has made little progress before now, however, transfer insider Peter O’Rourke has now delivered a positive update in which he claims Arsenal may well have a chance to sign him.
“They’re getting encouraging signs that something could be done with James Maddison,” O’Rourke said on The Football Terrace.
“It seems Arsenal are ready to offer a couple of fringe players as well as a substantial fee.
Let’s not be too optimistic I don’t see Leceister selling Madison to Arsenal.
Who cares? Ladies and gentlemen! Please prepare yourselves to rise and applaud as the real “assist king” SR10 makes his graceful entry against Brentford.
Well that will be our major trophy for i wish arsenal sign him
Other quality midfielders available without having to pay the substantial “English Tax” for players.
Tuen is available, Auoar is another example. We could bring in 2 good additions for the Maddison price being floated.
Arsenal fans….what exactly do you want?
I know I would love to see maddison at arsenal, not only that I feel he was the creativity that England missed
Don’t be surprised to see Paul Scholes at Arsenal next season.
Lol and Messi next to him, i dont even follow these rumours anymore
Auoar isn’t in the same bracket as Maddison lets be honest here.
we already have new no. 10 ESR, why still need maddison?
Exactly right Durand, value for money, bang for the £/€/$.
Just White and Maddison alone would be over 100 million. I can’t see Arsenal spending that, plus whatever else on other players, unless we make some great sales…the one thing Arsenal are simply the worst at!
both of the above comments are naive in the extreme.
Firstly Leicester is not a bigger club than Arsenal period. So they most certainly will sell.
Secondly Maddision is actually cheap at 60m. I believe the price will be closer to 70m with add ons.
In this case its not English tax he is on a similar level to Grealish. Absolutely outstanding player with multiple abilities that we are really really missing/
He can thread a pass, score from distance, score from free kicks, deleiver set pieces. He has been improvingyear on year and gaining more all round atributes.
He is not some average player, he far above both Auror and Teen.
Plus Auror will not bleed for Arsenal. He is an in and out player. Will play when he wants to and not when it gets tough. Maddison is a seasoned PL player with true potential to become world class and we would be doing fantastic business to get him.
The only player I would rather than him for AM would be Grealish.
Locatelli is a different position. Forget Auror.
This is Arsenal behaving as it should as a big club. We then need a suitable Xhaka replacement, an upgrade in goal, a right back and maybe a new striker.
I am not in favor of Abraham unless its to replace Eddie. But if its to replace Laca thats a NO NO for me
Lacazatte is the potential player than aubmayaung. Please down to my knees. Let him remain at arsenal. I am depressed because of not playing him
Arsenal should go all the way and sign aouror,maddison is too expensive since we don’t have enough cash at our disposal,I would have like us to sign maddison,but dis ‘English tax’ on their players his too high.Arteta couldn’t have sent saliba on loan,He would have leave him with us and sign bissouma instead of Ben white.
Dacoster, I agree with you 💯 on this one bro.
For real we need to think carefully and really see why we want the player that we want
Absolutely right..💯
Even when Saliba is not yet better than the center backs we have presently? On current form I don’t see him better than any of our CB.
I hope you are right. He is an assertive top drawer player who will give us a spark. He is proven in the EPL too.
Arsenal could get some cash to Madison, bisouma, neto
Maddison is EPL proven unlike Auoar. Am I the only one who’s thinking that we need Max Aaron in our right back ?
Thinking EXACTLY LIKE YOU BROTHER.
He will probably will be an upgrade of chambers.
No i think we should sign him too
I believe our right back position is not as bad as people make it look, even with the sale of bellerin we’ll still have good enough cover to take us through this season, if we can’t afford any of our RB targets. Maitland-Niles, Chambers, and Cedric would still do a decent job. If we’re able to sign White, that would help too.
Just sign him up and then Aaron’s then tammy on loan
What I worry about with Mr. Maddison is injury. Transfermarkt says he missed nine games last season (knee and hip) and three the season before (head and ankle).
That’s small fry compared to Arsenal players haha!
What I worry about Maddison is £200k per week wages, a young man and the attractions of the lifestyle and bright lights of London. Everything is a risk no matter who Arsenal buys.
Would we really expect Leicester to give up their superstar at this late stage of the transfer period with very little time remaining to find a replacement? That would certainly destroy their outlook for the season.
I would rather place my bet on either Aouar or Renato Sanchez. No doubt, the press will run with this Maddison story – to sell advertising.
I too can’t understand Arsenal’s lack of interest in Renato Sanchez, Matheus Pereira or Marcel Sabitzer. One of these plus Yves Bissouma or Ruben Neves and Arsenal is a far better and more balanced team. Two for the same cost as one James Maddison, as good a player as he is.
Arsenal will not buy right back player if bellarin move, they will use chamber and bellarin present back up…. Arteta will only go for one midfielder, I think they will try all out to get maddison, because they will be using maddison as holding midfielder and Smith Rowe as attacking midfielder, also if they needs to make changes base on opponent or base on present form of Smith Rowe or maddison then the young holding midfielder they bought will come in or start… if locatelli decided to come to arsenal, they will buy him and forget maddison.
And play ESR into the ground, unless he rotates with Saka or heaven help Arsenal Willian (if unable to move on)?
I can’t see him with Arsenal anytime soon, the main reason is that they are asking for too much and we are going to pay White 50$!
I guess Auoar is a better option at the moment.
Not for the long run. Check the decline of Ozil – one flashy season due to Sanchez’s brilliance. Auoar will be nothing better,I don not trust him wee bit.If he is here, it will be for money and the good life only and maybe some charity here and there, but not for footballing reasons. Ask any recent continental player who sweated out to win us something? Example – our recent victory was the FA cup with homegrown Emi, what has Leno won us? They were hired to make us Euro / UCL giants, we ended being out of the minnow Euro Conference too! Get Maddison or nothing.We have ESR all the way.
I think this one is extremely unlikely to happen now with Smith Rowe given the n.10 shirt which surely means he will start in the cam position, you wouldn’t spend that much on maddison to be backup. Auoar seems more likely now and I wouldn’t mind that in all honesty.
Maddison is the best option for arsenal despite of the injuries. very good in holding the balls
It just seems to me that the inherent complexities of such a transaction, considering the exorbitant fees, the logistics involved in LC securing a suitable replacement before the current window closes and our typically sloth-like maneuverings when it comes to getting deals over the line, might be too great to overcome in the allotted time, even if we made an official approach in the coming days…that said, he would be a glorious addition to a team that lacked the requisite amount of creativity, on most nights, in the middle of the park
I rather go with Auoar than Maddiso n coz he is of less costs and reserve something for a right back if Berlin moves to inter and for the fact of Smith development I go with Auoar and have Yye Bissuoma.
i would prefer auoar over maddison bcose he is a complete attacking mdfilder. have you seen his video highlights his vision, running, tactic and technic, dribble, defensive skills goal and assist? plse come to arsenal!
Its better we get reneto sachez and ben white more than those guys.
Arsenal just realized how important English national team players are to other teams.They don’t want to be screwed all the time by English referees.
It might be unfair to some foreign players (I think back to viera, gilberto and petit to make but a few) but auoar maybe compared to Maddison is likely to give less sweat and blood on a consistent basis as Maddison understands the general culture and league and has been raised in the English football system from early age.
He would come at a heftier price but having another young English player who will leave nothing on the field is no bad thing.
Question is Will Leicester sell him now and to another ‘competitor’ (tongue in cheek)
I would wish us to have great creativity in the attack coz ESR needs someone more experienced to accompany him at the side. Think of what if emi gets a longtimely injury en who is there to replace him. Maddison could play an 8 role with emi 10 role at a point en madi could play 10 role at the absence of ESR. I think it could be a welcome signing if all goes soomthly as expected from we THE AFC Fans.
I believe Maddison would be the better option between himself and ouar. He’s pl proven and an English player. I believe the more English players we have the easier the refs are going to be on us next season. Just not too comfortable with the players involved with the deal. I mean willock and AMN‽ . They could become the next gnabry and come back to haunt us.
Aaour Houssem is an upgrade maddison as such arsenal should act fast, bring him in to help us!
we don’t play rough football so the English player differences should not be a possible!
I would love to see us sign Maddison but whether we will or not I don’t know. He is a proven EPL player, an England international and a far better bet than some of the foreign players mentioned on here. I don’t understand some fans on here, they say they want us to start acting like a big club and when we do try to make a signing like this they still criticise. Some people are never happy.
All the way, maddison is the best option for the gunners to sign this summer.
Maddison it has to be. Maddison is better than Grealish and Villa are looking at £100 million for him.
I think it laughable that some people actually think the excellent Maddison would come to us. Remember who owns us and then start thinking properly.
Not a cat in hells chance, sadly.
If anybody reads this comment I have written, I would be interested to hear what you decided.
First, I would suggest you write a list of all of Maddison’s skills and abilities.
Then list how these skills would help Arsenal get back into the top 4.
If you discover he is a player who you think would really stand out in an Arsenal shirt; then ask yourself why Leicester want to let him go (regardless of the price).
I think this transfer smells, and I would really worry we will have bought a problem player. He might start off like a house on fire, but I suspect there is something wrong in his character that will come out later in the season.
Perfect 💖