Newcastle United may have been handed a major transfer boost in regard to James Maddison ahead of the January window.
Transfer guru Graeme Bailey has been speaking on the latest Talking Transfers podcast and has claimed he fully expects Maddison to leave his current club in the upcoming winter market.
Reports over the summer linked the Toon heavily with a potential swoop for the England midfielder, however, it is believed the price tag put Eddie Howe’s side off.
It is said the Magpies submitted two bids for Maddison over the summer but were unwilling to match the £60m demand put on the 25-year-old by Leicester City.
Tottenham Hotspur were also said to be interested in the playmaker, and Bailey is now expecting him to leave the King Power Stadium in the coming weeks.
He said: “I think James Maddison will move in January. I think he will get a huge move to another Premier League club in January.”
TIF Thoughts on Bailey’s comments…
We think this will be a really interesting potential deal to keep an eye on in January for two main reasons.
Is Maddison worth £60m?
Yes
No
Maddison has made another sensational start to the 2022/23 campaign and we do wonder whether this has proven to those at Newcastle that he is worth actually the £60m asking price put on him by the Foxes in the summer.
Meanwhile, not many people would have predicted Newcastle to be well within the race for a place in next season’s Champions League, so they may feel the need to push forward any plans for the summer to give Howe the best opportunity to finish in a European spot.
With seven goals and four assists to his name already this season and over one year left on his deal, we don’t think the £60m asking price will have dropped – the only question will be whether Newcastle’s admiration for the midfielder has.