"Don't Like Spurs!" James Maddison Deletes Old Anti-Tottenham Tweets Ahead Of £45m Transfer

James Maddison deleted two old tweets criticizing Tottenham Hotspur this week as he closed in on a £45 million transfer to the London club.

Maddison is set to join Spurs from Leicester City for an initial fee of £40m plus a possible further £5m in add-ons.

Ahead of his move, fans noticed that Maddison had deleted a tweet from November 2012 that read: "I hate Gareth Bale with a passion, calm down you monkey, [Jack] Wilshere is 10x better than you chimpanzee."

A 15-year-old James Maddison in 2012 was clearly not a fan of Gareth Bale, who was then playing for Tottenham

Twitter/@Madders10

This was posted when Maddison was aged 15 after he had watched Arsenal beat Spurs 5-2 in a north London derby.

Maddison took aim at Spurs and Bale again later in the 2012/13 season before a game against Liverpool.

A teenage Maddison wrote in March 2013: "Hope Luis Suarez destroys Tottenham today, don't like Spurs! Especially that monkey everyone's on about!"

That tweet has now also been deleted.

Maddison tweeted in March 2013: "Hope Luis Suarez destroys Tottenham today, don't like Spurs!"

Twitter/@Madders10

In fact, no posts before December 2019 are now visible on Maddison's Twitter account.

Maddison is not the first player to delete tweets when moving to Tottenham.

After signing for Spurs in August 2020, Matt Doherty famously deleted a tweet that read: "I love Arsenal forever and ever and ever".

Maddison is expected to become Tottenham's second signing this summer.

Italy goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was the first earlier this week when he joined from Serie A side Empoli.

Maddison scored against Spurs in February this year when Leicester won 4-1 at the King Power Stadium.

But the Foxes only won twice more in their final 17 games last season and were relegated to the EFL Championship.

James Maddison pictured shooting to score for Leicester City against Tottenham Hotspur in February

IMAGO/News Images/Gareth Evans