Arsenal look set to make a serious move in the transfer market.
Arsenal are exploring a sensational player plus cash deal to try and bring James Maddison to The Emirates, according to the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail reported last month that Arsenal believe there is still an opportunity to strike an agreement for Maddison, with Gunners officials confident a package worth about £60m may get the deal done.
But with cash in short supply following big-money moves for Ben White and Albert Sambi Lokonga, a player plus cash deal may help Arsenal generate the funds.
The Daily Mail says that the two players being considered as makeweights are Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson.
Both players have fallen out of favour under Arteta and would be allowed to leave this summer.
According to transfermarkt, Maitland-Niles has a valuation of £14million, and Nelson £8million. Maddison’s value is much higher at £49.5million. Even if both Nelson and Maitland-Niles were included, the Gunners would probably need to be adding in excess of £30million to convince Leicester to do a deal.
There appears to potentially be some tensions between James Maddison and Brendan Rodgers. Maddison was left on the bench for many of Leicester’s final games in the 2020/21 campaign and was then left out of England’s Euro 2020 squad.
Following that omission, Rodgers said: ‘The one thing you can control as a football player is your fitness.
‘There are things in the game you cannot control if you’re a player, you can’t control the tactics the manager chooses, what position you play in, but you can control your mentality and your fitness.
Maddison won’t get any respite in terms of fitness at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, but perhaps he is ready for a new challenge.
Elsewhere, Arsenal are reportedly favourites to sign Tammy Abraham from Chelsea.