£55m Newcastle target’s agents are close with rival club – journalist

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The James Maddison transfer pendulum continues to swing between Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.

In what now seems to be a daily occurrence, the tide has turned once again in the race between Newcastle and Tottenham for England playmaker, James Maddison.

Following Leicester City‘s relegation to the Championship, the likelihood that James Maddison would leave the Foxes is believed to be around 99.9% with Newcastle often being touted as favourites to sign the 26-year-old.

Maddison’s agents have a good relationship with Spurs

However, Tottenham are also very keen on Maddison and at times have been believed to have jumped ahead of Newcastle in the queue only for the next report to suggest that it is Newcastle who lead the way.

So sure as tick follows tock, it’s now Tottenham’s turn to be in the lead. That is according to transfer specialist Dean Jones who believes Spurs may have an advantage over Newcastle.

Writing for Ranks FC Patreon (h/t The Boot Room), Jones now says: “Most people are backing him to join Newcastle but my current information goes slightly against that. I’m told the agents doing the deal are pretty close with Spurs and that is one of a few reasons Tottenham might have an edge here. It’s going to take around £55million to land him. Newcastle say they won’t spend more than £75m this summer but take that with a pinch of salt.”

As Jones said, take the £75million budget thing with a pinch of salt, but even if that is true, Newcastle have chased Maddison for so long, they aren’t going to throw the towel in now.

Even if Maddison takes up a huge slice of Newcastle’s budget it won’t matter

Signing the ‘exceptional‘ Maddison for £55million would still leave us with £20million before player sales, and we’ve seen what Eddie Howe can do with a smaller budget – £12million for Kieran Trippier, £10million for Nick Pope. It’s not the end of the world.

Yes, agents have a lot of sway when it comes to getting their clients to go to certain clubs, and a good relationship between that agency and Tottenham could be an issue, but surely, Maddison can see which club is the better fit.

I said yesterday how it will show Maddison’s level of ambition whether he picks Newcastle or Tottenham and I stand by that.