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James Maddison Leaves Norwich For Leicester

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James Maddison has joined Leicester City for an undisclosed fee, thought to be worth around £24-25m if all add-on clauses are met. Those clauses will most likely also include a 10% sell on fee and are all part of what is the most expensive transfer of a Championship player and a club record fee for the Canaries. James has signed a five year deal with the Foxes.

The former Coventry City academy graduate joined Norwich on deadline day January 2016 for a fee rumoured to be somewhere between £2-3m.

At the time, it was seen as something of a coup for the Canaries with Liverpool having been heavily linked with Maddison up until that point. The deal was heavily structured to give the Sky Blues various instalments at points such as the number of first-team appearances, Premier League appearances and England caps. There is also a sell on clause, which if it is the standard 10% means that Coventry will get around £2.5m from this transfer.

Last season, Maddison was the difference for Norwich between finishing where we did and getting into a relegation scrap. His 15 goals, which easily made him the Canaries’ top scorer, directly earned City 16 points, meaning that without them we’d have finished on 44 points which is just 3 points off the bottom three.

Having sold Madders and Josh Murphy, the club’s two highest scorers from last season have left the club and that’s not mentioning their assists either. Who replaces them is now the big question.

The bottom line here is that Maddison had become too good for Norwich and too good for the Championship. He looks to me as though he is destined for the very top of the game and I for one wish him all the best.

I was lucky enough to briefly meet him at the final home game of the season with my son and he was a gentleman. He has joined a club that will hopefully give him plenty of opportunities for game time to develop even further and his sale has provided crucial finance for Norwich City. We were never going to be able to keep him and that inevitability has meant I feel strangely relaxed over his departure. I’m just desperate to see some of the Maddison and Murphy money get re-invested wisely.

The rest of the summer transfer window is going to be massive from this point onwards.

Good luck for the future, James and thank you.

OTBC

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Editor - a forty something Canary, who has been following Norwich for 30 odd years. Family man with wife, kids, dog and a love of sport. Fan of Boxing, Vale 46, F1 and Rock.

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