Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder James Maddison is entering his fourth season at the club, and while he hs been one of their top creators when healthy and played a key role in the historic Europa League title win in 2025, there is a sense that the former Leicester City star has yet to meet his true standard at N17.
Maddison tore his ACL to end the 2024/25 season and only returned to action as a substitute at the end of the 2025/26 Premier League season. While the 29 year old did not play more than 34 Premier League minutes in total, he played a useful role in keeping Spurs up with his leadership and clearly had a different level of technical class and quality of the first touch from his teammates when he would come off the bench to try and change games.
Tottenham need more from Maddison in the 2026/27 season. They need the experienced attacking midfielder to be fully healthy and decisive. In his best season for Spurs so far, Madders had 16 goal contributions in 2024/25, and he had 2.4 key passes and 2.6 fouls drawn per game in his previous season.
James Maddison may be feeling some pressure now
There have been rumblings of James Maddison being expendable to Tottenham Hotspur or not pulling his weight, and some even feel it would be time to move on from the player this summer before he turns 30 and save on his wages.
But that ignores the technical quality and end product Maddison brings, the leadership he has, the way he understands this club, his work rate and determination, and, yes, the fact that Tottenham Hotspur really need Madders to be at his best especially when the season first starts and Xavi Simons is still recovering from his own ACL tear suffered at the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
Even so, the point remains that Maddison has to play his best season for Tottenham in 2026/27 if he wants to keep getting minutes under Roberto De Zerbi and stick around beyond one more season. Everyone is rooting for him, but after missing almost a full season with a torn ACL and not quite having the overall influence he needed in 2024/25 as one of the stars of the team, Tottenham need to see real results from Madders and to see him step up as a force throughout the season. Minutes will be tough to come by once Simons is back from injury, but Maddison can still play an important role and ensure he is still central to De Zerbi's plans.
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