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Arsenal make enquiry to sign £60m attacking midfielder, player keen on move

By on May 31, 2019

According to the Daily Mail, Arsenal have made an enquiry about signing James Maddison but have been told by Leicester City we’ll need to pay £60m to get a deal agreed this summer.

Maddison came through the youth ranks at Coventry before joining Norwich in 2016 and his impressive two-year spell at Carrow Road led to a move to Leicester last summer.

The 22-year-old enjoyed a superb debut campaign in the Premier League as he contributed 7 goals and 7 assists to help Leicester finish 9th in the table while he’s also tipped to break into Gareth Southgate’s England squad having already represented the U21s.

It seems Maddison’s potential has caught the eye of Unai Emery as the Daily Mail claims Arsenal have made contact with Leicester to discuss a potential deal and the attacking midfielder is believed to be keen on a move to the Emirates.

I think Maddison would be an excellent addition as he’s a huge talent and we could certainly do with adding some hungry young British players to the squad as there is a distinct lack of desire around the place right now. I’d have Maddison in place of Ozil any day.

However, a deal will be extremely difficult as the Daily Mail says Leicester informed Arsenal it would take £60m to persuade them to cash-in and that kind of money will be beyond us this summer after we missed out on the Champions League.

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The newspaper says Emery’s budget would have swollen to around £90m had we qualified for Europe’s elite competition but a fifth placed finish in the league and defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday night means the boss will have just £45m to spend this summer.

A move for Maddison at £60m is now highly unlikely unless Emery can free-up more money by selling some existing players with the likes of Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan among those who could leave if decent bids arrive.

The Daily Mail says Arsenal are also now unlikely to follow-up on our interest in Wilfried Zaha due to his £80m price-tag and will press ahead with a move for £30m-rated Bournemouth winger Ryan Fraser instead.

Arsenal also want another centre-back and the report says failure to qualify for the Champions League means Emery must shelve plans to sign £65m-rated RB Leipzig star Dayot Upamecano and is now eyeing Getafe defender Djene Dakonam as a cheaper alternative.

It’s going to be a busy summer for Arsenal but unfortunately our shocking end to the season has cost us Champions League football and we must now try to overhaul the squad on a paper-thin budget, which isn’t going to be easy.