According to Sky Sports, Leicester City have beaten Southampton to the signing of Norwich City attacking midfielder James Maddison, and Birmingham City should move for Foxes youngster Harvey Barnes once the deal goes through.

What's the word, then?

Well, Sky Sports report that both the east Midlands club and Saints had agreed a fee in the region of £22m with the Canaries for the highly-rated England U21 international, but he has chosen to move closer to his family's home in the Midlands rather than to the south coast.

The 21-year-old may well be a long-term replacement for Riyad Mahrez with the Algeria international widely expected to leave the King Power Stadium, but his arrival at Leicester would also push a number of youngsters that were on the fringes of the side last season further down the pecking order.

That could include versatile 20-year-old attacker Harvey Barnes, who played 129 minutes across five appearances for Claude Puel's men having returned from a successful loan spell with Barnsley in the first-half of the campaign.

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How did Barnes do during the 2017/18 season?

He was very impressive.

The England U20 international scored five goals and provided a further four assists in 23 Championship games for Barnsley between August and December, before returning to the King Power Stadium.

The youngster probably didn't get as many minutes on the pitch as he would have liked having come back to the Premier League outfit, and he may well look to make another loan move to a second-tier side during the 2018/19 campaign.

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Why should Birmingham sign him?

The Blues, whose fans also want their club to splash the cash on an Aston Villa attacker, only scored 38 goals in their 46 league games in 17/18, and if they are to improve upon that record and move up the standings under Garry Monk next time out then they need more threat in the final third.

Barnes showed during his spell with Barnsley that he is impressive both through the middle and out wide – primarily on the left – and he would add some pace and the ability to dribble at opposition defenders – as he showed with 33 successful dribbles with the Tykes, as per WhoScored.com.