Newcastle could have signed James Maddison for a lot less back in 2016

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If Newcastle United get their way this summer, they will sign James Maddison from Leicester.

However, it will take a club record fee to bring him to St James’ Park. The Magpies have already had one bid turned down and that was worth a huge £40million.

Now Newcastle have made a fresh approach worth £50million. However, Leicester reportedly want £60million for Maddison, which would see them more than double their money on a player who Brendan Rodgers thinks is ‘outstanding‘.

Maddison joined Leicester in 2018 for £25million from Norwich City, having made a real splash in the Championship with the Canaries.

Before that he was at Coventry, and that’s where he caught the attention of former Newcastle scout Graham Carr.

Maddison was on Newcastle’s radar in 2016

Back at the start of 2016, Newcastle were managed by Steve McClaren under the ownership of Mike Ashley. Meanwhile, Graham Carr was the club’s chief scout.

And in an interview with the Chronicle last year, he shared that Newcastle had the opportunity to sign Maddison when he was just a teenager.

Carr stated that he was dealing with Coventry in January 2016 as they wanted to re-sign Adam Armstrong on loan. His scouts had seen Maddison in action whilst checking up on Armstrong, and issued glowing reviews.

However, those reviews were ignored, despite Carr stating that Newcastle would have been in the ‘driving seat’ to sign him given the Armstrong situation.

In February 2016, Maddison did leave Coventry, but joined Norwich instead of Newcastle. He cost them a reported initial fee of £2.5million.

Six and a half years later and he’s worth 24 times that amount. £60million is how much Leicester want for him.

It will be an incredible signing if Newcastle bring him in. However, if the club had been better ran back in 2016 then Maddison could already be a Magpie right now.

Then again, there’s no guarantee his career would have played out the same way.

For now, all the Toon decision makers care about is bringing Maddison to St James’ Park this summer, rather than the failures of the previous ownership.