Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is a fan of three Leicester players and the club is set to keep close tabs on the trio this season.
That’s the claim from Football Insider who add that Tottenham will make regular checks on James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Demarai Gray ahead of the next two transfer windows.
However, Tottenham fans aren’t completely sold on any of them, with Maddison attracting the most interest from supporters.
Maddison signed for Leicester last summer from Norwich for a fee of £22.5m and has registered two assists in five games this season.
He’s on the fringes of the England side and was on the bench for the last two Euro 2020 qualifiers, although he hasn’t won a cap yet.
All three players are English and young – Maddison is 22, Gray is 23 and Barnes is 21. Maddison is on a reported £55k-a-week at Leicester.
Here are the best reactions on Twitter to the link with the Leicester trio:
https://twitter.com/DJFOOTY/status/1173858274946539520
One fan is sceptical that Daniel Levy would pay the asking price for Maddison, which he puts at £70m. That might not be too outlandish a figure. Leicester reportedly put that valuation on his head over the summer [Evening Standard] and held out for £85m for Harry Maguire from Man United.
Maddison is a goon no chance he comes to us !
— barry toms (@TomsBarry) September 17, 2019
Take maddison only. Forget these clowns who hate him for previous comments, he’d snap our hands off to come if Eriksen were to leave tomorrow. Take that small club mentality and shove it ????
— TottenhamScotSpur ???????????????????????????? (@ScotSpurTHFC) September 17, 2019
Good, all 3 of them would be decent in a spurs shirt. Especially Maddison ????????
— George Tucker (@Tux02) September 17, 2019
I would only want Maddison hth. Got enough players in Gray’s position and I don’t rate Barnes at all. Maddison would certainly improve us though.
— WhiteHartHarry (@WhiteHartHarry) September 17, 2019
Definitely won’t be Maddison as he is a huge Arsenal fan so can’t see him entertaining that, I think Gray would be a very good addition to the squad though, has that raw pace we don’t have a lot of.
— Darren (@mackyd78) September 17, 2019
A few fans think that Maddison is an Arsenal fan and that that would stop him from coming to their club.
In today’s money-rich game we doubt that would influence where he was going to play football, but we’re not convinced he actually is a Gooner. Old photos of him were published in the Daily Star which showed a young Maddison wearing a Man United strip.
Maddison also commented on links with Tottenham, saying in the Telegraph, “I once came in from a training season and someone had texted me that they’d seen in The Coventry Telegraph that Maddison was going to Tottenham. I texted my agent and said, ‘Am I? Am I going to Tottenham?’ I wasn’t. From then I knew: you just focus on football.”
But kinda hard pass, don’t want to have to pay stupid “English premium” on any of these guys
— SpursDudeTHFC (@DudeThfc) September 17, 2019
Dybala > Maddison
— Skippity_Skipp (@x_defect) September 17, 2019
The final word goes to this Tottenham fan who thinks that Paulo Dybala is better than Maddison. The Daily Star reported that Tottenham will have a second chance to sign the £65m-rated attacker after failing to sign him over the summer.
They’re different players. Dybala can play across the front three and act as a back-up to Harry Kane. Maddison is a playmaker. However, they’re around the same price and we know which one most Tottenham fans would prefer their club to sign.
Dybala would make a lot of sense for Tottenham who have struggled to find a quality second striker, and it was reported by journalist Ian McGarry that he was genuinely interested in a move to Spurs. [Transfer Window podcast (4.30)]