Dean Saunders says he would ‘love’ Unai Emery’s Aston Villa to sign Leicester City star James Maddison, but he thinks he is better suited to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United.
The 2023 summer transfer window will officially open on 14 June and James Maddison is expected to be one of the names to secure a move.
Following Leicester City’s relegation to the Championship, Dean Saunders thinks the England midfielder is suited to Newcastle United because they are a club that is ‘on a track to success’, as he told talkSPORT.
Whilst Aston Villa are back in Europe and they are thriving under Unai Emery, those at St James’ Park have Champions League football to offer.
From a financial perspective, Villa can compete with many, but when you can offer a player to compete against the elite, then it’s a different ball game.
That’s why Saunders is backing Maddison for a transfer to Newcastle because the Toon Army faithful are going to watch their team head towards one direction only.
“I would love to see him go to Aston Villa because he is definitely a talented footballer,” said Saunders. “He is a number ten and if you look at Simeone at Atletico, he got rid of Felix because he didn’t slot in.
“If he (Maddison) asked me ‘where do you think I should go?’ I would say go to Newcastle. That club is on the track to success. They are going to keep spending. They are going to keep buying players. It’s not going backwards, it’s going forwards.
“All they are going to keep doing is adding great players to that squad. They aren’t going to buy average players. They have too much money to buy average players.”


Maddison worthy of Champions League football
The goalscoring midfielder suffered relegation, so from that perspective, his stock has taken a few hits.
But there have been many players in the past, that have been relegated, then taken huge strides the following seasons.
Aaron Ramsdale suffered back-to-back relegations prior to his transfer to Arsenal, whilst Gini Wijnaldum went down with Newcastle United, before moving to Liverpool and then winning the lot.
So, there is no reason why Maddison can’t make that step up to the Champions League level because he has the skill set to compete at that level.
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