Tottenham‘s Premier League season ended on 19 May, just like everybody else’s, but the defining point of their campaign occurred six months earlier with a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in which the scoreline felt almost like an afterthought.
Now that he has been excluded from Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad, it’s also clear that loss marked the beginning of the end of James Maddison’s Euro 2024 dream.
Before that game, Spurs had been the early pace-setters, swaggering their way to the top of the table with Maddison, the marquee signing of a transformational summer, embodying the new era in N17 like no other.
Maddison was named joint vice-captain with Cristian Romero by Ange Postecoglou and handed the No 10 shirt newly vacated by the departing Harry Kane before the curtain-raiser at Brentford, proof of the club’s faith in his inspirational talent.
He vindicated that belief by making a stunning start to the season, scoring three goals and setting up five more in his first 10 appearances before hobbling off with an ankle injury in that ill-fated London derby in his 11th.
Maddison spent almost three months out and like Spurs as a whole, was unable to rediscover the same joie de vivre that had encapsulated those exhilarating first few months. A return of one goal and four assists in 17 games post-injury is a testament to his struggles in 2024. In some ways Southgate has just confirmed what many Spurs fans suspected would happen.
And the players himself would have known his grip on Southgate’s squad was slipping from his reach in May when Postecoglou benched him for crucial matches at Stamford Bridge and Anfield. It was a telltale sign of his dwindling form at a time when others like Cole Palmer, Eberechi Eze and Anthony Gordon were starting to peak.
Maddison is a proud Englishman. His pinned post on X, formerly Twitter, is a picture of him as a boy with a St George’s flag painted on his face wearing a David Beckham metatarsal-era red England shirt.
It hasn’t sunk in… I’m going to The World Cup
— James Maddison (@Madders10) November 10, 2022Dreams really do come true
pic.twitter.com/DeKTECv3XT
“Dreams really do come true,” was the accompanying caption on the post after he was picked for the World Cup 2022 squad.
His pre-tournament post for Euro 2024 was one of regret rather than joy.
“Devastated doesn’t quite cut it,” he wrote on Thursday. “Trained well and worked hard all week but if I’m honest with myself, my form for Spurs when coming back from injury in the second half of the season probably wasn’t at the levels I had set which gave Gareth a decision to make.
“I still thought there would be a space for me in a 26-man squad as I feel I bring something different and had been a mainstay in this whole qualifying campaign for Euro 2024 in Germany but the manager has made the decision and I have to respect that. I’ll be back, I have no doubt.”
A popular figure in the dressing room, Maddison will be missed by some in the England camp over the next month. He struck up a great rapport with captain Harry Kane during Spurs’ pre-season last summer, and has played golf with north London rival Declan Rice during down time this week.
“Wishing the boys all the luck in the world out in Germany, unbelievable group and lads that I literally call some of my best friends,” he said in his post.
But with competition particularly fierce in his area of the pitch, he can have few complaints about missing out.
His club are the big beneficiaries of Southgate’s decision. Maddison will have a few weeks to ruminate and recuperate before joining his teammates for their pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea. It would be no surprise to see him start his second season at Spurs in the same manner that he did his first, reinvigorated with a point to prove.
He signed off his statement: “I genuinely hope football comes home.” Unfortunately for him, he’ll have to watch on from afar.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/KYn7aCW
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