Arsenal: 5 pros and cons of James Maddison £60m transfer

4. Can Arsenal Do Better Than James Maddison?

Perhaps the question can be rephrased to ‘can Arsenal do just as good as Maddison but for significantly less money’, which is hard to argue against them doing so.

£60m, which will likely be more, is a lot of money for a number of reasons. The contract situation and obvious talent always mean he’ll be worth a significant amount, but there are unavoidable levels of ‘English’ and ‘Premier League’ tax attributed to the valuation.

If Maddison was as gifted but was German and plying his trade for Eintracht Frankfurt, you’d be looking at a healthy discount.

As a player he would improve the squad. The question is whether Arsenal can find the same in La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A, and save £20-£30m in the process. They probably could, which makes it clear that Arteta is favouring the aforementioned ‘taxes’ and seeing them as a necessity to securing someone relatively low-risk in terms of performance output.

Being Premier League proven is in this case what could swing the tide. That level of immediacy in his displays and lack of lengthy integration time appear to be, in Arteta’s eyes, worth the outlay.

We have to look at Leicester as well and ponder what they might do with £60m+ in cash. Given their track record, they’ll probably go out and spend half of it on a European gem who will make fans forget Maddison’s name in a heartbeat. The Foxes invest and recruit very shrewdly and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them source another No. 10 and fill another position up with change left over for an ice cream.

If so, that’s a top rival being directly benefited. It has to be right.