Maupay insists he has ‘no problem’ with Maddison despite recent post

Neal Maupay has defended his latest social media post mocking James Maddison as mere banter, insisting that he has no animosity towards the Tottenham man.

Neal Maupay started the animosity with James Maddison

The beef between James Maddison and Maupay began in late January when Brentford came to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a Premier League fixture between the two sides.

There seemed to be a lot of bad blood between the two sets of players, with Maupay using Maddison’s darts celebration after giving his side the lead and the Tottenham players subsequently mocking the Brentford star after turning the game around to eventually win.

There were also a few barbs aimed at each other from Maupay and Maddison after that game but it seemed like that would be the end of that.

However, last week, the Frenchman reignited the feud by taking by seemingly mocking the Tottenham man after Gareth Southgate decided to leave him out of the final England squad for the Euros.

Maupay responded to the announcement of Maddison’s omission by taking to social media to post a picture of himself in front of a darts board and many Tottenham fans did not take kindly to the post.

However, the Bees forward has now said that he is prepared to take the flak that comes his way, insisting that it is all merely for a laugh.

Maupay likes being controversial for attention

When asked if there was any animosity between him and Maddison, the 27-year-old told talkSPORT: “You need to ask him. From my side, I’ve got no problem with him or anyone. I know when I do things like that and we lose the game they will come for me. That’s fine, I can take it. For me, football is a game and growing up I did the same stuff. I don’t want to stop now.

“I’m just having a bit of banter and a bit of a laugh, there’s nothing deep. I like to give something, but I can receive as well. It’s just fun. I like a bit of banter with my mates. That’s just how it is, just because I’m a professional footballer doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I don’t know how people react to it, but it’s just me.”

When asked about his darts celebration back in January, that triggered this altercation, the striker said: “I actually didn’t think about it before. I score and celebrate with whatever is going through my mind.

“I don’t have one celebration, so I do a bit of everything. When I scored, I was running to the corner flag and saw the fans and they were angry at me. I don’t know how my brain works, but I just did the darts celebration. It wasn’t towards Maddison, but one of their players does the celebration so I just did it.”

When asked about the Spurs players’ reaction, Maupay responded: “That was even funnier. How do you take a celebration so personally?

“Before that game, I was cool with everyone and with Maddison. He grabbed me straight away as I was coming back from the goal and he was so p*****. I was like ‘relax, it’s just a celebration’. All the players after they won the game came to me and were like ‘blah, blah, blah’.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I did not think there was anything wrong with Maupay’s celebration back in January and I did feel that the Tottenham players and fans made too much of it.

However, for the Brentford striker to mock a fellow professional who had just suffered the heartbreak of being left out of his national side for the Euros, is extremely weird behaviour. I am afraid that cannot be written off as ‘banter’ as it shows that there is a level of animosity there.