James Maddison admits he hadn’t heard of £17m Tottenham teammate before signing

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James Maddison has made an admission concerning Guglielmo Vicario and what he knew about his Tottenham Hotspur teammate before the goalkeeper joined the club in the summer.

Maddison was speaking to Ben Foster on Amazon Prime Sport about the Italian, who has made an amazing start to life in the Premier League with Ange Postecoglou’s side.

Guglielmo Vicario has been one of several revelations in the Tottenham side this season. He made a number of staggering saves to help Spurs set the pace in the early stages of the campaign.

James Maddison admits he hadn’t heard of Guglielmo Vicario before Tottenham move

Vicario has potentially been the best goalkeeper in the Premier League so far. In fact, he has probably proved a lot of people wrong given that he was hardly a household name before his £17 million move to North London in the summer.

As it turns out, it was not just football fans who knew little of Vicario before he left Empoli. James Maddison has now admitted that he was surprised when he heard Spurs being linked with the 27-year-old in the summer, as he responded to Ben Foster’s claim that he has been the best in the league between the sticks this season.

“Yeah, I think that’s fair. I think that’s a fair statement to make. We signed him, I hadn’t obviously signed yet. I was like who is he? I’ve never heard of him. I’m in the back of the car on his YouTube, Vicario highlights to see if he’s any good,” he told Amazon Prime Sport.

“Brilliant shot stopper. That’s the one thing I think, he’s hard to score past. Sometimes we’ll practice penalties and shooting in training, I want him in goal because it’s the hardest to score past.”

Goalkeeper has definitely silenced any doubters

The statistics certainly suggest that Vicario has been one of the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League. FBRef shows that he is third in the division for his performance against his expected goals conceded.

Meanwhile, he appears to be perfectly suited to the way Ange Postecoglou wants his team to play. He is very comfortable in possession. And he is able to put mistakes behind him quickly if he gives away the ball.

It will be interesting to see how he fares from here. When you consider that Maddison had never heard of him, it is surely fair to say that he initially benefitted from expectations being really low.

But he has been sensational so far. And if he continues to improve, Tottenham have someone who could be a stalwart for years to come.