One Tottenham Hotspur player has publicly claimed that he’s not a Spurs fan and has no hatred towards Arsenal.
The rivalry between the two north London clubs is fierce, so much so that many Spurs supporters were happy to drop out of the top four just so that the Gunners wouldn’t win the Premier League title.
Ange Postecoglou wasn’t happy at all with that attitude, and one of his players has now come out and claimed that he doesn’t really share the same sentiments that Tottenham fans do about Arsenal.
James Maddison says he’s not a Tottenham fan and has no hatred towards Arsenal
Tottenham signed James Maddison from Leicester City in the summer of 2023 for £40 million (Sky Sports).
The Englishman became a fan favourite at Spurs. He gets on really well with the supporters and gives his all for the club every time he’s on the pitch.
Maddison picked up two assists against Arsenal at the Emirates in 2023 and even had a little dig at Bukayo Saka. That made Tottenham fans love him even more.
However, following all the news in the build-up to their game against Manchester City and everything that followed, Maddison has had his say on the situation.
Talking about the rivalry with Arsenal, the midfielder has claimed that professional footballers don’t really pay attention to all that’s being talked about by the media and the fans.
He further claimed that he has never been a Tottenham fan and has absolutely no hatred towards Spurs’ bitter rivals, Arsenal.
Speaking on talkSPORT (28 May 2024, 5:15 pm), Maddison said: “All the build-up that you lot (media) do, we probably don’t as much notice as you think or don’t fully understand the fans’ feelings.
“I am not a Tottenham fan. Deep down in my heart, I don’t have the hatred for Arsenal that Tottenham fans have. But on the same page, I completely understand.
“I am a Coventry fan. That’s where watching Coventry in the FA Cup, that’s how I feel when I support a team, and that’s how I know with the rivals and stuff.
“So, I completely get it, but I am not sure, it’s not really a thing when you are a professional and a player. You just play the game normally and kind of ignore the outside noise.”
READ MORE: James Maddison says he had actually ‘never heard’ of one Tottenham player before he joined Spurs
Did James Maddison support Arsenal as a kid
When Maddison joined Tottenham, many of his old tweets about Spurs and Arsenal resurfaced.
When he was a teenager, the Englishman wrote things like Jack Wilshere is ’10x’ better than Gareth Bale and that he hopes ‘Luis Suarez destroys Tottenham’ because he doesn’t like Spurs (Daily Mail).
That led to suggestions that Maddison might have been an Arsenal fan when he was growing up, but the Tottenham midfielder set the record straight in August 2023.
“I’ve never in my life been a Gooner, just for the record,” he wrote while replying to a comment on Instagram.
That should be comforting to hear for Spurs fans, but we’re sure they’ll be hoping Maddison will have some hate towards Arsenal because he plays for Tottenham now.