Newcastle United have diverted their attention to James Maddison due to striker search struggles.
That’s according to journalist Chris Waugh, who has been speaking on the Pod on the Tyne after the Magpies made an ‘unexpected’ £40m offer for the Leicester City ace.
Reporter Dean Jones has previously claimed that the Toon are still aiming to sign a centre-midfielder, centre-forward and a wide player before the window closes, but their quest to bring in an attacker has proved fruitless thus far, with Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie telling GiveMeSport that finding a striker in the right ‘mould’ is proving particularly difficult, hence the change in approach as detailed by Waugh.
He said: “Ideally, what Eddie Howe has been looking for is he wants a striker and he wants a winger, primarily who can play on the right side, but actually, what’s happened over the course of the last couple of weeks is because Newcastle are struggling to get some of the targets in those positions, Howe and the club are looking at other potential areas where you could maybe strengthen the midfield, inject greater goals into the midfield and then that might partly solve the problem.
“So that’s where Friday’s £40m bid for James Maddison at Leicester City which was rejected came about. That’s basically part of the reason behind that.”
TIF Thoughts on Maddison and Newcastle…
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PIF have so far had two bids rejected from the Foxes for their player of the year, but perhaps they would be advised to revisit the situation.
While the 25-year-old may not be a necessity, he would certainly bring what’s missing from that Newcastle midfield in terms of attacking output.
He scored 18 goals and produced a further 12 assists last season – 10 more strikes than top scorer Callum Wilson managed at St. James’ Park last summer – while Bruno Guimaraes, Joe Willock, Joelinton and Jonjo Shelvey managed 13 between them (Transfermarkt).