There’s also the fact Southgate wants to play with 2 holding midfielders and there’s Mount and Grealish in his position. A more advenurous manager might play 2 creative midfielders
It is simplistic but I can’t shake the doubts I have.
However, I’d have him over Ødegaard because of his directness and superior output. Can’t deny that he’d bring more goals and assists to this team from midfield.
But as others have pointed out, is that £60-80m or whatever going to be best spent on Maddison? Shouldn’t we be able to find somebody at a more reasonable price and use the remaining money on other important areas?
I think that Edu / Arteta are fixated on making at least one or two big signings from the PL. Maddison is probably the best English CAM we can realistically get (Leicester might tell us to fuck off lol) but it just seems we’re focused on the most expensive market in the world when surely we could find better value elsewhere.
I don’t buy this, other clubs seemingly have no issue being aggressive in exploring the market. Quality replacements are out there if you have the means and expertise to identify them tbh
That line of thinking is why we ended up with Mustafi, Lacazette etc We should absolutely get the best player available even if they come at a premium. I’m not even sure £60million is overpriced and if you necessarily get better value buying from overseas either. Havertz cost £70m, Bruno Fernandes cost £55m and may cost more with his add ons. Buendia’s fee with the easy to hit add ons is £40m.
If there was someone as good or better in Spain, France or wherever I’d want us to be all over it but I can’t see anyone. Buendia might have been a smarter investment but that ship has sailed unfortunately. Him aside out of the players you have we can realistically get you have Nkunku (not strictly a CAM), Auoar and Brandt but aside from that most decent creative midfielders are at top clubs already. Those all strike me as high risk in that they might not cut it.
Also I don’t agree with Edu/Arteta having a PL bias. From reports neither Maddison or White were our initial targets, I forget the Defender’s name but we were quoted 60-70m and we initially wanted Odegaard
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This.
Even @stroller has pointed out that the half-measures approach hasn’t worked and will not work going forward.
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I think the only concern with Maddison would be his Injury record, I don’t know enough but maybe someone who has been following him more closely could enlighten us. How bad was his injury? Is he injury prone in the same way that someone like RVP or Wilshire was or is this a rare occurrence. With our track record for injuries and dodgy medical team we can’t be taking risks with players who are injury prone especially when spending that kind of money.
Note: Will add I’m a big fan of Maddison just generally curious to what his injury record is from people who have watched him more than me.
I saw on Reddit someone mentioned that he’s played 85% of games in the last 3 seasons. Which to me seems pretty good.
Looking at transfermarkt, he played 31 games and 2,100 minutes last season. 31 games and 2,600 in 19/20 and 36 games and 2,800 mins in 18/19.
Seems fairly good to me, no?
In 18/19 he got 7 goals and 7 assists in the PL and last season he got 8 goals and 7 assists. Not sure what happened in 19/20, but he only got 6 goals and 3 assists in that season (maybe Corona break threw him off?).
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He damaged his hip and I’m pretty sure had hip surgery, he then returned but sat a few games out afterwards because of discomfort and seems to have a recurring knee injury.
To me though and as someone said. Keep ESR buy Maddison and maybe aouar if we get rid of more players like willock, with no Europe we don’t have to over play all these players like last season.
We don’t have much money but we should spend now. This is the best chance someone shite like Arteta has to do well on the league. Almost all our players are fully rested over the summer. Not much travelling no European football, alot of our rivals just played in European finals and had loads of players on internationals.
Just go for it
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Yeah I feel like if Maddison misses 5-10 PL games a season on average, that’s OK as ESR can just step in and deputise in his role.
I feel like Maddison is the kind of player we should be getting. 15 goal contributions from midfield last season would have been absolutely vital to us.
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Yeah we genuinely don’t and haven’t had a good goal scoring threat from midfield since Ramsey at his peak. And even in decline, it speaks volumes about our lack of quality that Ramsey remained our most potent goalscoring threat from midfield.
Maddison is a sensible signing because you pretty much know what you’re going to get and he’s young enough that you’d hope there would be some room for improvement.
I’d be happy if we signed Lokonga, Aouar and Maddison. Because we’ve got the young midfielder who’s an unknown commodity, we’ve signed someone who is proven to be a good link between midfield and attack and progression of the ball then we’ve got someone who can really score and create.
If we bin Xhaka, cash in on Willock and get some type of fee for Torreira then I think the 3 we bring in to replace the outgoing 3 is a huge step up for us.
Out: Guendouzi, Torreira, Willock, Xhaka, Ceballos and Odegaard (end of respective loans)
In: Lokonga, Aouar, Maddison
Leaves us with the above 3 plus Partey, Elneny and ESR. I’d be happy with that.
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Were are they in these 2 tournaments though. Obviously it’s a sweeping statement in isolation for me and talent will always emerge and has to be nurtured but as ready fix players think it’s fair comment there not much about.
I’m actually more than happy to give Willock a go for us in midfield next season. I know people say his form for Newcastle was just a purple patch, but they said the same about Martinez and I think running the risk of giving Willock a shot in midfield is worth losing out on £20m transfer fee this summer.
Otherwise I’m in total agreement with that list of in and outgoings.
I’m worried about @Stroller’s agenda if we sign a goal scoring midfielder. 
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Have every confidence he becomes a DM and I continue with my agenda.
This and the Saliba cover up will by legacy to OA and the exposure of the myth of Dani Cabellos.
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To be fair…you’re only fighting one dood on Dani.
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Reading Leicester forums apparently he had hip surgery last year and they’re a bit worried about him getting back to his peak and being injury free. But considering the surgery/injury, he played allot last season
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Do you think aour could play behind Maddison alongside partey? Seems abit offensive for me but haven’t seen enough of aour.
This is a good question. I’d be ecstatic if we got both but both would want to start as would ESR
Can a 3 of Aaour, Maddison and Partey work with ESR out wide? Or doesn’t it have enough bite?
Pretty sure he’s horrible defensively but I’m not expert on him.
But if you control the game, which a team like that should, Partey should be enough against alot of teams.
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I can’t imagine Arteta allows a midfield to be too offensive, even if on paper the players look like they would be.
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