James Maddison has revealed that there was no talk within the Tottenham dressing room about the fact that some Spurs fans would want to see their side throw the game against Manchester City.
Based on what we saw online, the vast majority of Tottenham fans wanted to see their side lose against Pep Guardiola’s men in order to stop their fierce rivals Arsenal winning the title.
There was a lot of talk leading up to the game about how serious Spurs will take the game but Ange Postecoglou’s men certainly battled hard and tried their best, and in the end, they were perhaps a little unfortunate not to get anything from the encounter.
There was one particular chance that fell to Son Heung-min in the 86th minute that will continue to haunt Arsenal fans for a long time as the South Korean, who is usually so clinical in one-on-one situations, could not put the ball past Stefan Ortega to make it 1-1.
Maddison on Spurs fans wanting to lose to Man City
When Maddison was asked about the 2-0 defeat to City and whether there was talk among the players about the Tottenham fans wanting to lose, he told talkSPORT (28/05/24 at 5:15 pm): “There was enough of you lot talking about it in the media, though. We didn’t need to.
“Of course, we were aware of it because it’s the business end of the season. We are professionals. Did you watch the game? Exactly, it was a brilliant save from Ortega actually and he made two, another one from Kulusevski which went under the radar because of the Son save.
“But we applied ourselves brilliantly in that game. Listen we lost the game to the four-time champions, that can happen. I get that, but we can’t get involved in that, can we? (debate on whether Spurs fans should or shouldn’t want their team to win). What do you want me to do? Sit outside and take a poll of what they want. We had game to game to game.
“I think the Man City game was a midweek game – there was a lot of talk of Tottenham fans not wanting us to win the game, but as the game went on, and we were getting better and creating chances. I felt Tottenham fans wanted their team to win, regardless of the outcome. That’s what I felt.”
Spurs Web Opinion
No one can accuse the Tottenham players or Postecoglou of not trying their hardest against Man City. The players were always going to play to win as they are professionals and have not grown up in London to feel the rivalry as intensely as the supporters do.