I think you’re right that we will wait until the end of the window.
It just seems strange that for a position that clearly needs strengthening the most, it has taken this long to sort out.
It’s not as if this situation has been sprung on us all of a sudden.
For several seasons we haven’t had a top quality AM performing at the top level and we still don’t seem any closer to sorting it out.
Couldn’t we have signed Nkunku for peanuts? I remember us heavily linked with him under Emery for like £13mil
Yup, PSG just discarded him and RBL was smart enough to snap him up.
I have only seen him play a few times to be totally honest but have liked him when I have. And his stats are really impressive. I don’t put much stock in it but his “most similar players” list is pretty insane at FBRef.
Who’d be willing to go that high?
No doubt there’s no new information and this is one of those ‘no shit Sherlock’ tweets.
And nah he’s not worth that especially considering his recent injury record.
Maddison at £70m definitely below Aouar at £20-25m or Odegaard around £35-40m for me.
Leicester have routinely made excellent money on their players. Drinkwater, Mahrez, Chilwell, Maguire etc.
Leicester don’t sell for cheap and there’s no point waiting around to see if the situation changes. It won’t. Unless we’re willing to pay £70m, just forget this one. The price will not go down.
60, 70?
It’s almost like they just pull these ballpark figures out their arse…
Give them AMN and 45 million with a few cheeky add ons if necessary. That should do it.
It’s a lot of money but we’ve tried to go the slightly cheaper route before and we’ve then been lumbered with several players that aren’t performing, that we can’t then get rid of.
Odegaard is decent but we still finished mid table with him and Aouar doesn’t seem the same player he was a couple of seasons ago.
I would go for Maddison who is a top PL proven quality player and still fairly young and his wages might be slightly cheaper than the combined wages of Odegaard and Aouar as well.
If we’re paying 50m for White, then surely 70m for a player for a position we’re desperate for quality in, and who would make a difference, would be preferable.
I like Maddison but if you’re paying 70 + for a CAM type I think you could do better, although lots of those better players probably wouldn’t agree personal terms with us.
Who are you talking about here, not saying I don’t agree with you just struggling to think who the big name CAM’s are these days?
Grealish springs to mind but you’re right.
I just think signing 2 quality young talents like Odegaard and Aaour would be better bang for back was also another way of looking at what I meant.
Maddison is arguably better than both at PL level.
And Grealish purely for me is a left wing creative I haven’t seen enough of him at CAM to say for certain how he would fit but I do agree if you’re paying the big bucks he’s a sublime talent.
Maddison for me is being done a little dirty by the Arsenal fan’s perception, in the league there are only two better CAM’s imo in Ferrandes who I hate and KDB who is just some weirdly perfect midfield hybrid.
I also think this £70 million figure is just click bait. We probably have known for a while what Leicester would be after otherwise we wouldn’t have been bothering with talking to the player as much as we supposedly have.
I love Maddison but Leicester would be ridiculously naive not to come to the table if we were offering anything north of £55-60 million.
When I consider Grealish, Foden, James, Bernado and others I think of them as #10’s too.
Difference between them and Maddison is that they are all capable and/or willing to play in multiple other positions, Maddiison seems to just want to play #10 and that’s it which sounds eerily like Ozil to me.
Grealish played around ten games as a #10 in the PL last season.
For me Maddison is the opposite or perhaps the inverted type of attacker that Foden and Grealish are, he’s a CAM by trade who can play on the left while those two, if you look at their stat’s all their best work comes from the left and they only play in those central positions about as much as Maddison did not last season but the season before when he was out left supporting Chillwell.
For me you’d be as crazy to spend 100m on Grealish to shoe horn him central all season as you would to spend 60m on Maddison to use him primarily on the wings. Foden’s an interesting one, he seems to be able to produce from anywhere and he’s clearly young enough and talented enough that he probably could pick where he wants to play for any team in the world.
Not saying I don’t think Maddison and Grealish aren’t talented enough to chop and change I’ve just seen enough of them to know where both are best in regard to the EPL. Silva and Foden do probably benefit form Pep’s fluidity of attack, I suppose if Maddison or Grealish were to go there they would be scoring and assisting all over the pitch, but City are a rare animal with a unique system.
I’d rather Ødegaard and arguably Aouar at the same price, never mind for more than half.
But Maddison doesn’t improve us more than signing an Aouar and Odegaard does