“You must be bitterly disappointed and hurt by some of the suggestions that you wouldn’t be a good traveller if you weren’t in the team…”
James Maddison, and even Jamie Carragher in the Monday Night Football studio, must have been thinking, ‘where is this going?’ as Gary Neville pitched his question.
“Does that get to you a little bit and how do you answer that?”
The question left Maddison, who has matured on the pitch and off it over the past 18 months, dismayed — and staff at Leicester have been left bemused in the aftermath given the way the 25-year-old has taken his game to new heights in the last 12 months.
As the players casually chat over lunch in the plush first-team restaurant at their Seagrave training ground, manager Brendan Rodgers and James Maddison sit together and watch Sky Sports News on the large television above, deep in conversation.
It has become a common sight after a morning training session as the pair discuss every nuance of the game they live and breathe, and evidence of the special bond that has grown between the two.
Rodgers has taken Maddison under his wing as he looks to fully unleash his potential in the Premier League, and over the past 12 months, he has been rewarded with impressive results.
He dropped Maddison early in the last campaign to provide a wake-up call that to go with his talent he had to take his work rate on the pitch to another level, emphasising that the players at the top are just as prolific in their work.
Maddison has responded.
