Former Leicester City star Steve Howey insists that Leicester City would have happily sold James Maddison to Arsenal if they had made an acceptable bid, but hopes that he will now knuckle down.

Maddison was heavily linked with a potential move to the Gunners throughout the summer transfer window.

They are reported to have tabled a player-plus-cash bid but it fell short of Leicester’s £60m valuation of the playmaker, per Football.London. Arsenal signed Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid instead.

Maddison has already been reintegrated into Brendan Rodgers’ side, making three Premier League appearances already this term.

Howey believes that he could well have moved on if Arsenal did table the kind of bid Leicester expected, but has urged the club and the player to get on the same page in the next few months.

Indeed, he believes that Maddison simply has to return to the kind of form that saw the Gunners express their interest in signing him.

The playmaker scored eight goals and registered seven assists in the Premier League last season.

Speaking exclusively to The Transfer Tavern, Howey said: “I think Leicester would have happily taken the money but that deal’s dead now, with Odegaard coming in.

“For me, I think it’s a case of Brendan Rodgers getting him in and saying ‘listen, that deal’s gone, concentrate. If you want to be away, give the performances that you were giving that got you noticed in the first place, then you haven’t got an issue and if you want to go and we can get good money for you, brilliant, happy all round. But if you have them performances and you’re quite happy, we’ll offer you a contract’.”