Everton appear to have missed out on James Maddison.
According to Sky Sports, Leicester City are poised to complete the £22million signing of Norwich City playmaker James Maddison this week after passing a medical and agreeing terms.
Maddison, 21, starred in the Championship this past season, hitting 14 goals and eight assists for Norwich whilst becoming one of the most in-demand English talents around.
The playmaker now heads to the King Power Stadium, and the imminent move means that Everton have missed out on the former Coventry City man’s signature.
The Mirror reported last week that Everton had identified Maddison as their preferred signing to replace Wayne Rooney, and whilst losing out to Leicester may be seen as a blow, there may be an upside to this.
Maddison’s preferred position – even if he has played out wide for Norwich – is as a number 10, and that’s one area that Everton don’t necessarily need to strengthen.
Former manager Ronald Koeman almost collected number 10’s in Rooney, Gyfli Sigurdsson and Davy Klassen, and failing to find a way to properly utilise them all, and get the best out of club-record signing Sigurdsson, led to his downfall.
If Everton have been shown anything at the World Cup, it isn’t that Hirving Lozano should be their top target, it’s that Sigurdsson is at his best when the team is centred around him, having starred in Iceland’s 1-1 draw with Argentina.
As talented as Maddison is, missing out to Leicester has saved new Everton boss Marco Silva from facing a similar headache to Koeman in attempting to jam number 10’s into his 4-2-3-1 setup – and Silva has to make Sigurdsson his key rather than splashing out for another attacking midfielder.
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