Newcastle United are weighing up whether to make another offer for James Maddison after Leicester City rejected the Magpies' latest bid.
Newcastle have had two big-money proposals turned down in recent days and a senior source at Leicester has stressed to ChronicleLive that the 'manager [Brendan Rodgers] made our position clear - he's not for sale'. Newcastle must now decide whether to test that stance once more after seeing a £40m bid rejected at the weekend and an undisclosed club-record offer knocked back on Tuesday.
Leicester's stance should not come as a surprise as, obviously, no club would admit that they would be open to offers for a key player. In fact the Foxes adopted a similar approach before Chelsea stumped up the £50m required to sign Ben Chilwell two years ago.
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However, Newcastle are going to offer considerably more than they have to date to make Brendan Rodgers' side even consider letting Maddison go. Leicester may be the only Premier League outfit yet to make a signing this summer, after failing to offload a number of high earners to make space and generate funds, but Rodgers is adamant the Foxes won't be 'exploited'.
Newcastle clearly sensed a potential opportunity with Leicester's logjam and Maddison entering the final two years of his deal, but the Magpies are also acutely aware of the need to comply with the Premier League's profit and sustainability regulations, too. Newcastle may have the richest owners in the world, but the rules in place mean the club cannot just spend their way to the top and every million counts at a time when the owners are trying to boost revenues through new sponsorship deals. That is one of the main reasons why Newcastle have tended to pay fees in instalments, which previous owner Mike Ashley loathed to do, in an effort to maximise how much they can spend in each window.
Securing more firepower and creativity has ultimately proved Newcastle's biggest challenge this summer - even if it was Eddie Howe's priority to begin with. There are actually some parallels with January when Newcastle encountered difficulties landing a centre-back, which was the club's number one aim in the mid-season window. Newcastle, eventually, signed Dan Burn late on and the Magpies do have a list of alternatives to turn to if a move for Maddison does not come off.
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