The rumour mill stepped up a gear this weekend with Southampton heavily linked with Norwich City’s James Maddison.
Details were largely thin on the ground for a while, short of talk of a £20million fee and strong interest from Leicester City but the speculation was pretty consistent that we would be the likely winner of any battle.
Sky Sports reported yesterday evening that they believed fees had now been agreed for the player.
They claimed that sources had suggested both Southampton and Leicester had agreed £22million plus add-ons transfers with the Carrow Road outlet for his services, and although both bids had been accepted, they repeated the claim that Maddison’s preferred choice would be St Mary’s Stadium.
The 21-year-old is incredibly highly rated and he came through the youth ranks of Coventry City. His spell with the saw him debut and he made 12 starting appearances, with a further 19 showings from the bench as he began to impress in his early years. An eye for goal was apparent back then as he scored four times in the league.
That brought him to Norwich’s attention and they agreed an undisclosed fee for his services at the end of the January 2016 window. Loan spells back at Coventry and then Aberdeen brought on his development and he now boasts 80 starting appearances to his name, 33 substitute showings with a return of 24 goals.
The England Under 21 international scored 15 times last season in the Championship so he should certainly be a worthy addition to our squad as we seek improvement on 2017/18.
Hopefully this one gets over the line quickly as it should certainly help boost the fanbase.
