James Maddison update: Mixed news for Newcastle & Leicester’s stance clear – Luke Edwards

It’s all gone a bit quiet on James Maddison, but The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards has broken the 48-hour silence with an update on our pursuit of the Leicester City star.

Sadly, it’s not an overly promising one, as Edwards reveals that there’s been ‘no progress made’ since we had our second bid – in the region of £40m plus add-ons – rejected on Tuesday.

He insists that we ‘haven’t given up yet’ and still believe the player ‘wants to join’, but claims there’s been no contact between Newcastle and Leicester since the start of the week.

According to one of his sources at Newcastle, the club aren’t entirely sure what the next step is in our search for two new attackers, suggesting we may have hit another wall – or are simply biding our time before deciding what move to make next.

Edwards also feels that Leicester won’t sell both James Maddison and Wesley Fofana. The latter has received serious interest from Chelsea in recent days, with reports in France claiming a £75m bid has been knocked back.

If we’re to have any success in our pursuit of the 25-year-old Englishman, he reckons we must drop the ‘buy now, pay later’ terms and submit an offer that gets much closer to Leicester’s asking price, said to be in the region of £50-£60m.

Here’s what he’s had to say in a series of updates on Twitter this morning:

‘Can only see one of them [Maddison and Fofana] leaving and Newcastle United have made no progress or even had any contact with Leicester since start of week. Doesn’t look promising…

‘Source claims Newcastle United are not even entirely sure what next step is.

‘They haven’t given up on Maddison but no progress made.

‘Given they also need at least one attacking player whole thing strikes me as odd.

‘Player supposedly still wants to join though.’

‘If they want him, the only logical next step is a third bid? And no more messing around with a favourable buy now, pay later structured deal.

‘Leicester are only going to sell if they are, to borrow an old cultural reference, “shown the money.’

So, it’s good news that the player wants to come and we haven’t given up yet, but concerning that we’ve made no progress and no contact over the past few days – especially when Chelsea appear to be pressing on in their attempts to sign Fofana.

Leicester’s stance seems clear. They’ve done nothing to suggest he is not for sale, but won’t be cashing in unless we up our offer considerably and agree to pay more of the fee up front.

I mean if they want him the only logical next step is a third bid ? And no more messing around with a #nufc favourable buy now, pay later structured deal. Leicester are only going to sell if they are, to borrow an old cultural reference, “shown the money.”

— Luke Edwards (@LukeEdwardsTele) August 4, 2022