Manchester City were showing an interest in James Maddison last month when Pep Guardiola was wanting a goalscoring midfielder, but it appears the Sky Blues aren’t going to pursue the Leicester City playmaker this summer.
City were distancing themselves from Maddison and now Fabrizio Romano tells Caught Offside that there has been ‘no contact’ from the Manchester giants, paving the way for Newcastle United to make a move. The Magpies have long shown an interest in the 26-year-old, so they’ll be unopposed to sign him now.
Guardiola still can’t be happy with the poor output of Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan, with the pair being short of goals in recent months, but City may be setting their sights higher than the England international.
It’s worth noting that Maddison has scored eight goals with four assists from 15 Premier League games this season, so he would improve the squad. The 26-year-old would be second for chances created (2.2 per game), second for tackles (1.7 per game), second for goals (8) and joint-third for assists (4).
He wouldn’t come cheap with a £60m price tag, but Maddison has surpassed double figures for goal contributions in five of the last six seasons. Guardiola could do a lot worse.
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