James Maddison could turn into one of the hottest transfer targets of the summer – which spells good news for Norwich City.

The £50m-rated Leicester City midfielder was linked with both Arsenal and Chelsea in the national media on Thursday as the Premier League duo look to refresh their squads.

City negotiated a series of clauses in the 24-year-old's then club record move to the East Midlands in 2018.

Maddison’s omission from England’s Euro 2020 plans and the Foxes’ failure to qualify for the Champions League denied his previous club six-figure top-ups.

But the Canaries would receive a multi-million pound boost to their own summer spending plans through a 15pc sell-on fee should Maddison move on again.

The Gunners may have missed out on Emi Buendia, who opted to join Aston Villa, but the Daily Mail claim Maddison is emerging as one of their main targets to fill a problem position in Mikel Arteta’s squad.

Champions League winners Chelsea have also reportedly identified the ex-Coventry City trainee as a potential replacement for Hakim Ziyech, who appears to be surplus to requirements under Thomas Tuchel.

Maddison endured an injury-hit end to last season, and was also left out of Brendan Rodgers' plans for a club breach of coronavirus rules, yet still finished as an FA Cup winner with a second half cameo against Chelsea at Wembley.

But City’s former player-of-the-year is regarded as one of the best creative prospects in the country since making an eye-catching breakthrough in Daniel Farke’s debut season in Norfolk.

Ex-Southampton vice-chairman, Les Reed, recently revealed the Saints had believed they were in pole position to sign Maddison back in 2018 before Leicester’s financial muscle won the day.

“Maddison, it was a toss of a coin,” he said. “I’m still disappointed in the way we lost Maddison.

“Mads was ready to sign. We had everything agreed and then there was a delay and Leicester came in and blew us out of the water.

“We were not in the same league as Leicester in terms of the hikes you could make in numbers of millions on maybe a transfer fee, an agent’s fee or salary.”