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Arsenal hatch plan to land key transfer target in ambitious £50m deal

By on July 21, 2021

According to the Daily Mail, Arsenal are ready to offer Leicester City a number of fringe players to sweeten a potential £50m deal for James Maddison this summer.

Mikel Arteta has already snapped up young talents Nuno Tavares and Albert Lokonga this summer but the boss knows he needs to bring in an established No.10 to add some much-needed creativity to the side.

Martin Odegaard looks set to remain at Real Madrid after returning to Spain following his loan spell at Arsenal last season so we desperately need a top class replacement and Maddison has been strongly linked in recent weeks.

The Daily Mail says Arteta has made the playmaker a key target but Leicester City are demanding in excess of £50m for his signature. Money is tight at the Emirates so the club have hatched a plan to sweeten the deal without having to stump up more cash.

According to the newspaper, Arsenal are ready to offer Leicester fringe players such as Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Reiss Nelson to try and tempt the Foxes into a player-plus-cash swap deal.

Arsenal could just about afford to pay £50m for Maddison if we manage to sell some unwanted players for decent fees, but I doubt we can go much higher so it makes sense to offer players to Leicester to reduce our outlay. They’ve shown an interest in Maitland-Niles in the past so he’s perhaps the most likely player Leicester would want.

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

Considering Leicester have finished above us in recent years, it’s certainly an ambitious move by Arsenal to try and sign one of their best players but this is a move I’d be delighted with if we could pull it off. The Daily Mail says that although negotiations will be difficult, Arsenal believe Leicester are open to selling Maddison if the right deal is presented to them.

Interestingly, the report suggests that Maddison may not be entirely settled at the King Power as he was left ‘hugely disappointed’ at being left out of the side for the FA Cup final win over Chelsea.

The 24-year-old struggled to regain his first team place under Brendan Rodgers after recovering from a hip injury during the second half of last season, so this may be why Arsenal feel a deal is there to be done.

Maddison signed a £100,000-a-week deal last summer but Arsenal would be able to offer him a significantly better salary if he moved to north London, and we’d be able to guarantee him a starring role in Arteta’s side.

So, while on the face of it this looks like an ambitious move by Arsenal, I actually think there could be a solid chance of us pulling this off if we can engage in serious negotiations with Leicester. Personally, I’d love to see Maddison join Arsenal so fingers crossed we can get this done.