James Maddison underlines why Newcastle United want him and Leicester want to keep him

Newcastle United’s pursuit of James Maddison appears to be at a standstill at the moment with a fee having yet to be agreed with Leicester City. The Foxes have remained firm in their stance that only one of Maddison and Wesley Fofana will be sold this summer, and at this stage it is Chelsea who are reportedly closer to agreeing a deal for the latter.

While Fofana’s performance raised question marks over his commitment to the club, it looks as though Maddison took a different approach to Sunday’s match with Brentford. Instead, Maddison displayed exactly why Newcastle are keen on adding him to their squad with an excellent attacking midfielder’s performance.

The 25-year-old’s tally of five key passes was bettered only by Leeds United’s Jack Harrison on the opening weekend of the season, who incidentally is another attacker on Newcastle’s list of targets this summer. That is a pretty large indication of the type of player Eddie Howe is looking to add to the squad.

It also did not take him long to register his first assist of the season, as it was his corner that setup Timothy Castagne’s opener. While Kieran Trippier is currently the man on set-pieces for Newcastle, another player capable of providing consistent deliveries from dead ball situations can only be a positive for the squad.

But it is not only his playmaking ability that would improve Howe’s side, but also his willingness to shoot. With six, no player in the Premier League registered more shots on the opening weekend and those two statistics means he has all the attributes to be the perfect number 10 for Newcastle.