‘Interesting’: Tottenham may wait for club to have bid accepted for £60m player and then hijack deal

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Journalist Ben Jacobs believes Tottenham Hotspur might try to hijack Newcastle United’s bid to sign James Maddison.

Speaking to Last Word on Spurs, Jacobs says that he’s heard good news for Tottenham Hotspur in their pursuit of the English attacking midfielder.

Jacobs believes that Leicester will sell Youri Tielemans, who has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal, and one other player this summer, and that could be Maddison.

When asked about Spurs’ chances of signing the player, Jacobs said: “He’s the type of character if the right offer comes in, he would push for a move.”

“He’s desperate to play European football if he can, which is bad news for Newcastle but may be good news for Spurs.”

“And it’s a World Cup year. He’s down in the pecking order and would like a move which would help him maybe push for Qatar 2022.”

Newcastle have already had a £40m bid for Maddison rejected, and Jacobs revealed that Eddie Howe’s side have already made a second offer of £50m.

Leicester City’s valuation of Maddison is £60m, however Leicester have yet to respond to Newcastle’s latest offer.

Spurs could hijack Newcastle’s Maddison bid

Jacobs believes that there’s a chance Tottenham let Newcastle do all of the work to sign Maddison before using whatever bid is accepted to try and hijack the move.

The CBS journalist said: “What’s interesting is that if Newcastle were to have an offer accepted Spurs may let them do the leg work and then hijack that bid.”

“It’s still one to watch because in a straight choice between Newcastle and Tottenham, Maddison would pick Tottenham.”

The Maddison saga will be all too familiar to Spurs fans, who had a similar situation happen to them in January when Liverpool pipped them to the signing of Colombian forward Luis Diaz.

Allowing Newcastle to do the hard work of negotiating a deal with Maddison gives Spurs time to concentrate on other potential incomings, including Italian Nicolo Zaniolo.

If Spurs can bring in the 23-year-old from Roma, then they would almost certainly abandon a move for Maddison as they play very similar roles.

The ball is firmly in Leicester’s court right now, who will be hoping a bidding war breaks out to get the most value out of one of their prized assets.