Newcastle now frontrunners to sign James Maddison this summer ahead of Tottenham

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Newcastle United are now back in the driving seat for Leicester City’s James Maddison after it was believed he was Tottenham-bound.

Now that the season is all wrapped up, Newcastle can put all their focus into the transfer window and it seems that James Maddison is still very high on Eddie Howe‘s wish list.

Leicester City weren’t able to avoid the drop on Sunday and now a mass-exodus is expected with James Maddison hotly tipped to be the first out the door according to The Daily Mail.

Newcastle are back in pole-position for James Maddison

The Mail also claims that Newcastle are now frontrunners for Maddison’s signature after a spell where people thought he was more likely to join Tottenham.

Newcastle can offer Maddison Champions League football whereas Spurs missed out on European qualification thanks to Unai Emery‘s resurgent Aston Villa who pipped them to the Europa Conference League on the final day of the season.

James Maddison has been valued at £60million by Leicester and they’ve stood firm on that figure despite Newcastle’s repeated attempts to shave a few million off that figure last summer.

With the Foxes relegation, Newcastle may try again to adjust their asking price, but after an 18-month pursuit, Newcastle might just be resigned to paying what Leicester want to get the deal done.

Where does James Maddison fit into Eddie Howe’s first XI?

The report in the Mail suggests that Leicester will be looking to bring in over £80million by selling Harvey Barnes and James Maddison and then later go on to say that Barnes is valued at £40million. I’m not a mathematician by any stretch, but that suggests that Leicester may accept somewhere around £40million for Maddison.

This saga has dragged on so long that I’ve actually started to cool on Maddison whereas before I was buzzing that he was looking likely to join Newcastle. It’s not that I don’t rate him any more, I still think he’s a fantastic player, but I don’t know where he fits into how we play.

Of course, Howe might be looking to change up his tactics next year, perhaps he played the way he did this season because he felt it best suited the players at his disposal, and with a few incomings he will be able to tweak the formation. Time will tell.