James Maddison, Newcastle, Magpies, St James' Park, Premier League
Newcastle United have not offered Martin Dubravka to Leicester City as part of their bid for James Maddison, according to Craig Hope of The Daily Mail.
The lowdown
The newspaper’s northeast football correspondent reported that Leicester have ‘shown an interest’ in signing the 33-year-old goalkeeper from Newcastle.
On Monday, the Magpies made a second bid for Foxes midfielder Maddison, this time worth in excess of £40m.
The reason that Leicester may be looking at Dubravka is that Kasper Schmeichel is on his way to Nice, with a medical likely to take place in the next 24 to 48 hours (via Sky Sports).
The latest
Hope took to Twitter to inform supporters that, while Leicester are genuinely keen on Dubravka, a cash-plus-player deal is not currently believed to be on the table.
However, he hints that Newcastle could still choose to submit an offer of that nature further down the line, tweeting: “Leicester have shown an interest in NUFC goalkeeper Martin Dubravka but understand he is not yet part of the package for James Maddison. That could change, of course.”
The verdict
What kind of discount could Newcastle receive if they threw Dubravka into the deal?
He turned 33 at the start of this year, and the CIES Football Observatory value him at a maximum of €7m, which equates to £5.9m. That wouldn’t be an enormous saving by any stretch, but it’s potentially worth a try for the Magpies.
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That’s because they’ve already signed a goalkeeper in the form of £10m man Nick Pope, which means that the Slovakian is no longer indispensable.
Dubravka, who was dubbed ‘amazing‘ by Allan Saint-Maximin, has been an excellent servant for the club, but the Toon’s 2919/20 Player of the Year may view a move to the King Power Stadium as an attractive one if it means that he could be their first-choice ‘keeper to succeed Schmeichel.
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