James Maddison joined Tottenham from Leicester last summer (Photo: Getty)
James Maddison has admitted he had ‘never heard of’ one of his Tottenham teammates and was forced to watch his ‘YouTube highlights’.
There was a great deal of change at Spurs last summer, most notably with the departure of legendary striker Harry Kane and the arrival of manager Ange Postecoglou.
The Aussie has begun to bring the good times back to North London, and although a run of four winless games has seen his side lose ground in the title race, there is a great feeling that the club are on the right track.
The club’s recent recruitment has worked a treat, with Maddison perhaps the best of Postecoglou’s nine signings.
The England midfielder joined from relegated Leicester for £40million and had scored three goals and made five assists in 11 Premier League games before picking up a bad ankle injury.
But the 27-year-old has revealed that he was forced to look up one of his new teammates before he arrived at Tottenham – though he probably wasn’t the only one, as it turned out to be goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
‘We signed him. I hadn’t obviously signed yet,’ Maddison told Amazon Prime Video.
Guglielmo Vicario joined Tottenham from Empoli just before Maddison’s move (Photo: Getty)
‘I was like “who is he?” kind of thing. I’d never heard of him.
‘I’m in the back of the car on his YouTube Vicario highlights to see if he was any good. They were alright to be fair. Brilliant shot stopper!’
In truth, few in England had heard of the Italian prior to his £16m move from Empoli in July.
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But the 27-year-old has exceeded expectations so far, pulling off some very impressive saves to concede just 20 goals in 14 games, keeping four clean sheets.
‘That’s the one thing… I think he’s hard to score past,’ Maddison added as he heaped praise on his keeper.
‘Sometimes we’ll practice penalties and shooting in training, I want him in goal because he’s the hardest to score past.’
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‘I watched his YouTube highlights to see if he was any good.’