Luke Edwards of The Telegraph, serial destroyer of dreams has once again urinated on our bonfire by saying that Newcastle will be “unlikely” to move for James Maddison in January.
#nufc “highly unlikely” to move for James Maddison in Jan according to well placed sources. There could be signings made but not going to be huge month for recruitment and that deal is very, very expensive and difficult to do. Still like the player though and remains of interest
— Luke Edwards (@LukeEdwardsTele) December 1, 2022
Luke Edwards has a good record of being right, and the fact that he’s citing “well placed” sources suggests that he could be right about this too, which would be a huge shame.
Obviously, it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t go for Maddison, there are plenty of other options out there, but from my own personal point of view, Maddison would have been my number one target for January.
With him ending the tweet by saying Maddison still remains of interest, there could be a chance that we revisit the move in the summer when Newcastle’s European fate will be decided, as will Leicester’s league position, which was looking precarious until recently.
As for who we will be tracking in January if not Maddison, there may still be interest in Moussa Diaby. There certainly is amongst the fanbase. And with things not going too well at Leverkusen, Diaby could end up being a much easier deal to sort than Maddison would be.
Diaby missed out on a place in the France World Cup Squad due to his form being indifferent this season and his club, Bayer Leverkusen struggling to get going in the Bundesliga, although, like Leicester, their fortunes my be turning around.
It may end up that no big players come in in January as we focus on bringing in youngsters for the future like Andrey Santos and Garang Kuol.
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