Here at Sport Witness we’ve seen plenty of hatchet jobs, character assassinations and everything else down the years. Today it’s the turn of Sport BILD for Tottenham signing Xavi Simons.
While Tottenham might be excited about their big summer signing, it seems they want to send out a very big warning to Spurs fans about the Dutchman.
Because they have a dossier of past events, indiscretions and outrageous behaviour that they think Tottenham need to be aware of.
They label them as ‘curious anecdotes’ about the player, but we’ll leave you to decide if that’s applicable.
First off there’s an incident with Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen, who was supposed to meet with Simons before a race in Las Vegas but was given the cold shoulder by the Tottenham midfielder. He simply didn’t turn up to the planned event, insisting that the crowds at event were too large for him.
Then there was an incident with the player’s dog, who was left abandoned on the roof terrace of Xavi’s apartment in Leipzig while he was international duty with the Netherlands in March.
A friend was scheduled to look after him but seemingly didn’t, leading to dog being left alone and barking incessantly. Neighbours threatened to call animal protection, but Leipzig then intervened instead. He was forced to take the animal abroad and is said to have cried during the trip.
That roof terrace has been the source of much anger. Until spring it had been adorned by a large white tent, housing strength and athletic equipment. Except this tent was blown away in a storm after being poorly secured, taking off and striking the roofs of other residential buildings in the process.
Then there as an incident with the firm alarm at Leipzig’s training centre. 300 employees were force to leave the facility and the fire department arrived in large numbers at the scene. Why? Because Xavi had invited a hairdresser to the centre. She allegedly sprayed so much hairspray in his room it set off the alarms.
The biggest red flag of the lot happened earlier this year while Leipzig were on a PR tour in Brazil. A party was planned for the group, with two locations suggested. Instead, Xavi wanted to take the team to a poor neighbourhood, a favela, where a party is scheduled for that evening.
When the bus arrives, security deem it as highly dangerous and only the security guards dare to leave the bus. The operation is quickly broken up and his teammates later took him to task. The reason for his choice? He had been to the favela the day before with his private bodyguard and brother Faustino and met “new friends”. He wanted to introduce the rest of the Leipzig squad to them.
That was one incident which didn’t go down well and clearly his relationship with the squad was not a great one. In fact, it’s claimed Xavi had earned himself the nickname ‘princess’ in the dressing room over the course of last season.
Whether this kind of behaviour repeats itself remains to be seen, but Tottenham beware, BILD clearly think you’ve got a problem on your hands.