“It’s a competition that we think is achievable for us” — James Maddison says Tottenham Hotspur are ‘hungry’ for Europa League glory.
Thursday’s clash against Eintracht Frankfurt at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is one of four fixtures pivotal to Spurs’ 2024/25 campaign.
Given Tottenham’s abysmal showing in the Premier League — where they sit 14th and miles off the European spots — it’s no surprise there is a real emphasis on the Europa League this season.
Still, with the Lilywhites now in the quarter-finals, there’s a significant hurdle ahead before they can start dreaming of a trip to Bilbao. If they get past Frankfurt, a semi-final against either Bodo Glimt or Lazio awaits — a challenge they’ll be well aware of.
James Maddison backs Tottenham for Europa League trophy push
With no Champions League side dropping into the Europa League this term, Tottenham’s route to the final looks a lot more achievable — and James Maddison certainly agrees.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the midfielder made it clear that he and his teammates are hungry to go all the way in Europe. Their aim? Ending Spurs’ long-standing trophy drought and silencing the endless outside noise.
He said: “Yeah no we’re excited it’s obviously an amazing competition playing in Europe is always fun, always good, always a tough test. But it’s a competition we think is achievable for us definitely.”
On whether winning it would be the silver lining in an otherwise frustrating season, he continued: “Yeah of course yeah, obviously like I said earlier we need to improve the Premier League form and that would help our Europa League campaign.
“But that is something that we’re eyeing up, we want, we’re hungry for and we want to bring a trophy to Tottenham for the fans and stuff obviously coming from the media about Tottenham and being trophyless for a little while now. So that’d be real for us.”
Asked whether it feels like just a matter of time before they win something, he added: “Well you’ve got to be ambitious, be hungry and you’ve got to believe that you can win it otherwise you’re not going to at all. So it’d be silly for me to say like hmmm I don’t know — we believe we can win it, we’ve got to go and do it.”
Maddison’s not the only one fired up either — Djed Spence has also spoken out about his desire to help bring silverware back to N17 this season.
Dimitar Berbatov on Spurs trophy chances and squad mentality
Former Tottenham forward Dimitar Berbatov told us exclusively at SpursWeb that he believes this group of Spurs players would be angry at the constant talk about their inability to deliver silverware to Hotspur Way.
He said: “It’s always important for anyone to win a trophy but in the case of Spurs it’s been a long time – everybody knows that, everybody keeps repeating it.
“Sometimes, I imagine the players playing now in the team will get angry because everybody is repeating the same stuff. So, they know it, everybody knows it and let’s hope it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”