James Maddison hits again at Roy Keane with cheeky celebration towards Man Utd
James Maddison hit back at Roy Keane with his celebration and post-match comments as he scored the match-winner against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon
James Maddison hit back at Roy Keane with his match-winning performance against Manchester United.
The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder scored the only goal of the game as Spurs added to Ruben Amorim’s woes with a 1-0 victory in north London.
Maddison reacted first to Andre Onana’s save from Lucas Bergvall’s shot, following in Onana’s poorly parried stop to tap home from point blank range.
He then celebrated in his trademark style by throwing a dart at the camera before placing his finger over his lips to shush after making a talking gesture with his hand.
The celebration appeared to be aimed at Keane following the pundit’s comments about the England international. Keane claimed that Maddison would not be a difference maker when he returned from injury, pointing to his poor performance against non-league Tamworth in the FA Cup.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Keane said: “We saw Maddison at Tamworth, he was taken off. Tamworth are non-league.
“People say Maddison’s the man. When is he going to step up to the plate? He got relegated with Leicester and he’ll get relegated with Spurs.
“Maddison isn’t bad, when he’s not at the darts, but let me tell you if you think he’s going to come back and get Spurs into the top six, you’re in cuckoo land.
“He’s good, he’s a talented player. But if you’re a player in the Spurs dressing room and Maddison’s back in the squad, you wouldn’t be looking and going ‘oh Jesus – he’s back today.
“We’re going to be fine’. England have a squad of 300 and he can’t even get in that. You kid yourselves everybody.”
Maddison was asked in his post-match interview about his celebration, where he hinted that it was aimed at Keane, he said: “There was a little bit of outside noise this week. People will have their opinions. Nobody is more critical of me than myself.
“The gaffer prefers when we are in our own bubble but sometimes you can’t miss it, it’s in your face.
“With social media, WhatsApp, people sending you stuff. It sometimes gets sent to me especially when it’s a big name. But it’s about responding in the right way and I was the match-winner.”
