Leicester City are set to sell integral playmaker James Maddison this summer. Here is what we know, why this is terrible, and the justification.
If not to remind you, the English midfielder is our most critical player. From goals and assists to consistent passion in defence, Maddison offers the King Power outfit his all. He is just so important. Just to nail the point home: as per FB Ref, we know that ‘Madders’ is amongst the best creative midfielders in the top five leagues.
There is little worse than to hear the news the Foxes are going to sell the player regardless of whether they stay up or down. According to the Telegraph, Maddison will be sold in the summer with one year remaining on his contract. Apparently, this would be for anywhere between £45-60m.
Leicester City’s big mistake
How much can a player be worth to a club? Can they effectively be the team? In Leicester’s case, Maddison is just that. Without the Englishman, the side can look lethargic and impotent. Luckily, we have seen the Foxes win in his absence, and luckily we have plenty of strong talent coming up the youth ranks.
Nevertheless, it would be a massive mistake to sell Maddison in the summer. The only condition on this remark is Premier League survival. Should the King Power club remain in the top division, they will need ‘JM10’ to be artist in our midfield, allowing us to focus our transferring efforts on other areas, rather than hoping to get another world class attacking midfielder.
On top of that: £45m. Not enough, not nearly enough. Madders is worth at least £70m, although I do understand that being in the last year of his contract it does force the value down. However, that value cannot fall so drastically when you still need to sign a replacement: £60m is a minimum in my view. So, selling the player could be painfully dangerous, not really that much of a financial gain, and risk the progression of the club.
Not repeating old ones
Youri Tielemans. Caglar Soyuncu. There are several big name players who will be leaving the club in the coming summer window on a free transfer. That is unacceptable. The Belgian is worth at least £50-60m, the Turk around £45m. These are massive losses because they were not sold in the previous window.
To be fair to Leicester City, to lose such a player on a free could be just as bad as losing him for cheap. That would also mean no additional money to invest in a replacement. We need to spend around £35-45m to replace a player of Maddison’s calibre. So, to earn literally £0 towards that would equally be a mistake.
So, the Foxes cannot repeat the mistakes of the very recent past and lose several big names on big contracts for no returning value. A rebuild needs money, Leicester need to make money somewhere, somehow.
On top of this, there is one major benefit: the wage bill. Jamie Vardy, the English attacking-midfielder, James Justin, Ricardo Pereira, Harvey Barnes, etc. there are many on rather large wages which will be good to reduce those as our income falls from a lack of European football.
Furthermore, by freeing those wages, we can invest more both in terms of transfer value and increasing existing star’s wages to keep them here on longer contract. The attacking-midfielder is on massive wages, and freeing them up will be extremely useful.
It is upsetting that this may become the norm once again: selling a big player every season to save money and reinvest in other positions. Additionally, the youth squad will improve and eventually there are midfielders who will come up the ranks. Will Alvez, Sammy Braybrooke, and Wanya Marcal-Madivadua are obvious examples.