James Maddison |
One of the great joys of this season has been to see James Maddison playing his full part for the Dons following his loan move from Norwich City. His form, his assists and his goals return all underline the fact that he’s as happy as any Dons fan with the move.
“I am really enjoying it here. I did not set myself targets but it has gone as well as I could have hoped for. We reached a cup final, even if that didn’t go how we wanted, I scored the winner against Rangers, it has been really good for me. All the lads, the staff and the manager, they are all close knit which the fans maybe don’t see.
There is a really good feel about the place. Everything is very professional. Training is very good. We are expected to work very hard every day but there is also a good bit of banter in there as a well.
“I was lucky in that I had had a good pre-season at Norwich. I felt fit but then I arrived here after not playing for a couple of weeks, and you do lose a little bit of fitness, a little bit of sharpness. When I came in, all the lads here were up to speed and had been playing regularly, so it takes a couple of games to catch up. I feel I am there now and hopefully I can keep putting in performances to show everyone what I am all about.
“I know Joe Lewis is a Norwich fan, so maybe because of that he made me very welcome when I first came in. He is a really nice guy and on the pitch his performances speak for themselves. He has pulled off some incredible saves.
“Wes Burns is my room mate but all the lads have been great with me since I got here. Even though Ryan Jack was injured and out of the team at the time, he went out of his way to welcome me into the dressing room. I want to thank them all for being so good with me. Even off the pitch they will take it in turns to go for a coffee or some food to make me feel welcome because I am on my own. I have really enjoyed it”.
Aberdeen might have become a home away from home, but James’ real home is back in England, in Coventry, where he was born and brought up, and where he played for his local side.
“I lived literally ten minutes from the stadium and ten minutes from the training ground. I first joined Coventry when I was six years old. When I was a bit younger, I used to support Manchester United because my favourite player was Ronaldo. As I got older, 12 or 13, I started supporting Coventry and then when I got to 16, I got to the stage where I was coming in full-time as a Coventry player and being involved in the first team, so you don’t support them so much from the outside, you become part of it.
“Coventry is a massive club. They were in the top division for many, many years and it has only been in recent seasons they have gone down the divisions for various reasons. There is a great youth set up there and I am still close with a lot of people who work within the youth academy. Coventry relies on it massively and there have been many academy graduates who have gone on and had very successful careers and have made the club a lot of money.
“I was at the club for 13 years – right the way up through the academy, every step of the way and then I made my debut when I was 17. That was one of the proudest moment of my career so far. Despite it being a home game, I actually made my debut at Northampton because we had moved out of the Ricoh Arena for a while. It meant in my first game, there was only something like 1,000 fans, so it was a very difficult time for the club. We had Steven Pressley as manager at the time – I know people in Scotland will be familiar with him because he managed at Falkirk. There were problems going on with the owners and there were rumours about the academy and that it was going to fold. They were troubling times and they are still having a tough time as they are in a low position in League One.
“Steven Pressley put me on the bench as a 16 year old in League One. I was still a boy! That was such a weird experience. We played Stevenage away. It was only on the Friday that he pulled me into his office and told me I would be travelling. I had been training with the first team for a couple of weeks but I was still very much part of the U18 dressing room. I was really nervous just when I had to go and train with the senior players, so it was quite a shock when I was told I would be part of the first team squad travelling to Stevenage. I went down to the kit room and saw my name being printed on the back of a shirt. To see Maddison 36 was a great moment.
“When I got on the bus to travel to the game, I thought half of these boys don’t even know my name yet! I really enjoyed the experience. It was a 22 man squad so I just presumed I would be sitting in the stand, I never believed I would be on the bench. I was then in and out of the squad for the next year or so before forcing my way into the team.
“I made my debut against Cardiff in the cup. It was live on Sky Sports. Again there was only 1,000 or so fans there because of a lot of the supporters were boycotting the games because of the owners. It maybe helped me in a way to be honest that there was a smaller crowd. It took the pressure off me a bit and when I came on as a sub, we were losing anyway. I came on and did well and had a part to play in the goal we scored. All my family were there so I was buzzing, even though it was all a bit surreal. As a kid growing up, you dream of that moment, but it is hard to take in when it actually comes along.
“I have scored a few free-kicks in my time, all the way from youth level to the first team. The most important goal I have scored, the one that stands out, wasn’t actually one of my free-kicks but one I scored on the last day of the season to keep us up and send our opponents Crawley down. That goal really meant something to me. All the permutations were quite complicated but I think at one point we were going down.
“We were just outside the relegation zone going into the game and I think it was something like if Crewe scored a goal against Doncaster we would go down but thankfully I came on as a sub and managed to score the winner in the last minute which settled things. We were playing away from home, all my family were there and when I scored all the fans went mad. At the end of the game they were singing my name for the first time. There was an electric atmosphere. As a player you never get tired of the fans singing your name!
“It was a lot of pressure at a young age. I remember the gaffer just saying, go on and express yourself. Don’t feel the pressure of the game or allow the nerves from the fans to get to you. I went on and played really well in that game and that put my name out there for the first time. I really staked my claim for a place in the team for the next season.
“That was more motivation to work hard. I practise every day, or every training session I am involved in. I have always practiced whenever I could. We used to get day release when I was in school from U13 to U16 level. We would come out of school one day a week to do extra training with Coventry and I used to go a bit earlier to practice free-kicks on the AstroTurf outside. It is just something that has been instilled in me. My parents always told me that practise makes perfect. I have always worked hard at my game and I will continue to do so.
“Only so much is down to natural ability, you must work at it. You have to practice. Even from a young age, I spent hours in the back garden just practising with the ball at my feet. So I have put a lot of hard work into it and have been very dedicated so it is nice to see the rewards I am getting at the minute.
“After I played some games at Coventry, there were a few clubs interested in me. I spoke to the Norwich manager though and everything he had to say and everything about the club appealed to me. There was a lad called Jacob Murphy who was on loan at Coventry at the time from Norwich. I also spoke to him about Norwich when I heard about the interest. I just felt that it was a club that was going to develop me as a player.
“They have allowed me to come here on loan because I wanted regular first team games. I still feel that Norwich was the right decision. It is a great club. It is a real family club from all the way through the staff to the players and manager. I really enjoyed pre-season there and I am hoping to have a successful career with Norwich. “Alex Neil has been really good with me. He was obviously the guy who bought me so I was happy with that. I had a good pre-season and he helped me a lot in that short space of time, not just with the ball but told me what I should be doing without the ball and my responsibilities on and off the pitch. He is quite strict which I think helps me. I really enjoy working with him.
“The English Championship is such a tough league. Norwich had a good start but then had a difficult spell at the end of October. The 5-0 defeat to Brighton was not what we were looking for. Results recently have been disappointing. I am sure they will still be up there at the end of the season though. There are 46 games, 24 teams, there are some really good teams in there with real financial backing. It is going to be a really tight league this season. I think the standard in the English Premier League is getting better and is having a knock-on effect on the Championship. There is more quality. If you look at the squads that team such as Newcastle have, it is very much a Premier League squad.
“There is a lot of talk about whether young English players get a chance. At big clubs, your Chelsea’s, your Arsenal’s, there are a lot of talented boys in the U23s who need to get loaned out but at those big clubs, you need to be really, really good to make it because they have the financial resources to go and buy the best players in the world so you have to be a real stand out. It is just the way it is at the moment in England. There are players coming through and the ones who do make it have to be of such a good standard, then that can only help the national team. Down the road, we all want to see young English players playing in the Premier League. That is what it is all about”.
Being so far from home at such a young age can be tough so James was grateful for the chance to go home during the international breaks.
“The international breaks have been nice, they gave me a chance to go home and see the family. They also give you the chance to recharge the batteries and we are all ready to go again. We are all looking forward to a very busy December.
“We needed to recharge the batteries or otherwise it will catch up with us this month when we have eight league games. That is going to be a very hectic spell where the manager is going to have to rotate and use the full squad.
“When you have a bit of a break it is good to cut yourself off from football. Because I am up here living on my own, everything is football. There is nothing to distract me. Saying all that, when I was back down the road last time I went to watch Coventry play and I was watching football on the telly so you can’t really take me away from it!
“That said, I think I am pretty good at switching off when I am away from football. There are times when you do need to take your mind off it and switch off, a time when you don’t think about football. You need to rest up so you can focus again.
“That said, I think I am pretty good at switching off when I am away from football. There are times when you do need to take your mind off it and switch off, a time when you don’t think about football. You need to rest up so you can focus again.
