With Sky Sports reporting the other day that Leicester City seem to have won the race for talented Norwich City midfielder James Maddison, inevitably Everton were interested in him and lost out or should’ve been interested in him and lost out, or something or other.
It’s another ‘drop the ball’ round of reporting where nobody is actually sure if we picked the ball up in the first place.
Now, in a sense that James Maddison is the type of player we should be interested in signing as Marco Silva begins his own Goodison Park revolution as we plan for a new home, I would agree on that front that he is the type of talent we should be taking a close look at.
But it’s said Southampton lost out because he wanted to move closer to his family home in Coventry and Leicester better allows him to do that. If that was the player’s prime motivation I don’t know how Everton ‘dropped the ball’ unless we could convince him we were closer to Coventry than Leicester were?
A very old report from the Mirror said we had an interest in him as a direct replacement for Wayne Rooney and with no proof of that, it just leant on Silva apparently telling Rooney he was no longer wanted.
But the press have regularly contradicted themselves on that topic so it doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny, but plenty were quick to point that out and even suggest homegrown talent as a possible replacement as Silva appears to be very open to our own youth.
In any event, some fans were disappointed to miss out on him – whether we had an interest or not.
Very surprised Everton letting Maddison to transfer without making a bid considering we’ve been strongly linked. ????????♂️
— Nick Willo (@nickwillo4efc) June 18, 2018
Might’ve been a case of him wanting a move to the midlands so we didn’t bother going for him
— G-Dawg (@GrantyBoy78) June 18, 2018
I guess they have Dowell already, who is a similar age, position, nationality, and ability. Only Leicester and Saints bid in the end. Both EFC and LFC linked up.
— John Merro (@johnmerro1) June 18, 2018
Not in for him mate. I wanted us to be in the mix but I trust Brands and Silva
— Baz (@THT1878) June 18, 2018
He’s a decent player but he would obv block any route for Dowell, money best spent elsewhere it seems.
— Brian Sinnott (@Sinno68) June 18, 2018
Time will tell on Maddison. If he was so good, Leicester wouldn't have got him though, and hopefully we'll have similar in Dowell and save ourselves £20m+!
— AndyCM81 (@AndyCM81) June 18, 2018
Dowell certainly has the skill. If he can become more consistent and up his work rate a bit we would have some player. Hopefully will get more opportunities under Silva.
— C (@chughs67) June 18, 2018
Gylfi main man.
— Graeme McVeigh (@GraemeMcV) June 18, 2018
Dowell started season well but everyone at Forest said he lost confidence and he really struggled in the second half. Still think we could do with a signing in that position, maybe something might be in Gotze links.
— Scott Morris (@Scott_MorrisEfc) June 18, 2018
Just the sheer amount of reports from pretty reliable people says we were interested and some even suggested a bid should have came. Potentially, but with links to Gotze I feel he does want a no.10. Whether that is inclusive or exclusive of this supposed no.6.
— Scott Morris (@Scott_MorrisEfc) June 18, 2018