Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy is understandably very proud of himself for signing influential midfielder James Maddison this summer, but his tongue-in-cheek comment about the Englishman’s red car has triggered a few fans.
The Lilywhites worked hard to sign Maddison from Leicester City for around £40m, which is proving to be a bargain deal after seeing his early impact at the club.
The 26-year-old midfielder has already had four goal contributions (two goals, two assists) in just five Premier League appearances for his side.
With Spurs sitting in the top 3 places in the league table, Levy is mighty pleased with how he made the choice to bring him into Ange Postecoglou’s squad. However, at a recent fan forum, he revealed one tip that he gave to Maddison after he arrived to the club.
When asked about his thoughts on Maddison ahead of the North London derby, Levy simply said: “James needs to learn that he can’t come to the training ground in a red car. I’ve told him. He’ll learn.”
Of course, rival club Arsenal’s home colours are red and white.
However, that doesn’t seem to have gone down well at all with some of the more ‘purist’ or ‘traditionalist’ supporters – who have clapped back at Levy for failing to ensure that the club isn’t associated with anything red in public.
The irony being that Tottenham’s kits have featured red since they made a front-of-shirt deal with insurance company AIA. The red AIA logo has long been a bone of contention for Spurs fans.
Levy actually played a key role in bringing in AIA (a Hong Kong-based multi-national insurance and finance corporation) in 2013.
He also ensured that the sponsorship agreement with them was renewed again in July 2019, which will be in place until the end of the 2026/27 season unless either of the parties want to back away.
The logo of AIA is in red, so that is why they probably want their identity in Spurs’ shirt to be coloured in the same.
He has also been criticized for how the red-themed advertisements for AIA is allowed inside Tottenham’s own stadium during games, although this is probably a part of their agreement with the sponsors.
Fans believe that if Levy really hated his rivals’ colours so much that he would’ve banned it from the shirt and convinced AIA to allow Nike to change their colours in Spurs’ kits.
Levy, for the time being, still remains a divisive figure among Tottenham Hotspur fans and not everyone is that convinced or pleased with his work as chairman despite the Lilywhites’ superb start to the new Premier League campaign.
