What Does Spurs' Splurge Mean For Maddison?
Are Spurs moving on from the playmaker?
By Patric Ridge
Tottenham Hotspur are going big.
With the Champions League to prepare for, the Europa League winners — who finished 17th in the Premier League last season, remember — are backing new boss Thomas Frank.
Mohammed Kudus has signed from West Ham for £55m, and on Thursday, reports emerged, and then swiftly accelerated to ‘here we go’ stage, that Spurs had triggered a £60m release clause in Morgan Gibbs-White’s contract at Nottingham Forest.
Gibbs-White is due to have a medical, and in one fell swoop, Spurs will have spent £115m on two attacking midfielders.
And while Kudus is perhaps more likely to play out wide, there is no doubt that Gibbs-White does his best work as a number 10.
Gibbs-White has been a focal point in Forest’s midfield since he signed from Wolves for an initial £35m in 2022. He was brilliant last season, as Forest reached Europe for the first time since the mid-1990s.
Yet as Kudus and Gibbs-White come in, it begs the question, what about James Maddison?
Two years into his Spurs career, surely Maddison should be the main man in midfield? He has the quality. And it’s not as though he is known to have attitude or workrate issues.
But, there’s clearly something not quite right.
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