James Maddison is set to have his Tottenham Hotspur medical today at Hotspur Way after his club Leicester City agreed to a transfer for the player worth around £40m. Meanwhile, in what is technically a separate transfer, Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks will head the other direction, signing for the now-Championship club Leicester for £10m.
Look, I know that swap deals aren’t really a thing in football anymore and technically this isn’t one — these are two separate deals, likely in part because Norwich City has a sell-on clause for Maddison in the event he was ever sold. It’s not entirely clear how that sell-on affects the financials; maybe we’ll get reporting on that later.
But come ON, y’all! Just look at that deal! Spurs are getting an ideal player for new manager Ange Postecoglou’s high press and high octane style for effectively £30m, half of what Leicester were demanding, because Levy convinced the Foxes to spend real money for Harry freakin’ Winks. Remember back in the day when Spurs got actual money from Aston Villa for Alan Hutton? This feels a little like that.
Now, I’m going to be fair here. I do think that Winks is a capable professional footballer who will do very well for Leicester next season. In fact, I think he could absolutely boss it in the Championship and could be a big part of Leicester bouncing straight back up to the top flight next season. I also feel bad for Fitzie and for others who appreciated Winksy. He’s a home-grown player, one of the rare few who progressed from the Spurs academy to the first team, which puts him in rare company. Also, I know what it feels like to like and appreciate a player that nobody else seems to — I was a Kordell Stewart fan.
But this is an excellent deal all around. Spurs get their guy in for much cheaper than they were being asked, and in the process they are able to offload a player surplus to requirement to a situation where that player can thrive.
Everybody wins here. Except maybe Leicester, but that’s okay too, I still have nightmares about Robert Huth headers, so screw ‘em.
Anyway, the Maddison medical is today, which means we might get an announcement late in the day as well.
