Quantcast
Home   >   Transfer News   >   Arsenal open talks over deal for £60m star as Arteta looks to sign top target

Arsenal open talks over deal for £60m star as Arteta looks to sign top target

By on July 28, 2021

According to Football London, Arsenal have initiated talks with intermediary agents about signing James Maddison as Mikel Arteta steps-up his pursuit of the £60m-rated Leicester City playmaker.

The boss is overhauling his squad this summer and we’ve already signed left-back Nuno Tavares from Benfica while midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga has arrived from Anderlecht.

Centre-back Ben White is expected to complete his big-money move from Brighton soon and Arsenal are then likely to focus their attention on bringing in a central midfielder and a new No.10.

Martin Odegaard has gone back to Real Madrid following his loan spell and although Arteta hasn’t given up hope of re-signing the Norwegian this summer, Football London says he’s made Maddison his top target for the No.10 role.

Arsenal have been strongly linked with the Leicester playmaker over the past few weeks and Football London says we’ve now held talks with intermediary agents about a possible deal.

No formal approach has been made to Leicester yet as we’ve just sounded out the agents to see if a deal would be possible but the report suggests that Maddison would cost around £60m.

Arsenal will need to sell unwanted players before we could sanction such a deal but the Daily Mail reported recently that we’re prepared to offer Leicester Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Reiss Nelson as part-exchange.

It would certainly make sense to use the likes of Maitland-Niles or Nelson as part of a player-plus-cash swap deal to reduce our financial outlay but it remains to be seen whether Leicester would be open to such an agreement.

Let’s see how things develop over the coming weeks but I’d love to see Arsenal making a statement by signing Maddison. The 24-year-old is a hugely talented player and I think he’d be a terrific addition to the squad.

Maddison struggled to regain his first team place after recovering from a hip injury during the second half of last season and reports suggest he was unhappy at being left out of Brendan Rodgers’ starting eleven in the FA Cup final.

If that’s the case, he may well be open to the idea of joining Arsenal and no doubt we’d be able to offer him a sizeable pay rise – which always helps.

If Maddison is a no-go, then I think Arsenal will wait to see if we can sign Odegaard again later in the window. Personally, I’d be delighted with either Maddison or Odegaard.