‘I’m not convinced’ – Jenas would take ‘world-class’ Tottenham man over Arsenal star
Former Tottenham man Jermaine Jenas is “not convinced” that Martin Odegaard is better than “on the verge of world-class” talent James Maddison due to the latter’s transformative impact.
After getting up to speed in his first campaign at the Emirates, Odegaard has been one of Arsenal’s most influential stars over the last couple of seasons.
In fact, he was one of the most impactful players in the Premier League last term, following up seven goals and four assists in the 2021/22 season with 15 goals and eight assists last term, as the Gunners narrowly missed out on the league title.
Rightfully, he’s seen as one of the best players in the division, but Jenas doesn’t think it should be an easy answer to take him over Tottenham new boy Maddison.
“I was having this argument recently with an Arsenal fan, not even an argument just a discussion about Odegaard and James Maddison, and the guy was like ‘you would always take Odegaard over Maddison’, and I was like ‘why?’ he told TNT Sports.
“I’m not convinced by it personally. Odegaard is a special talent, so is James Maddison, but it’s about how he’s [Maddison] transformed a team on his own.”
Indeed, Jenas feels the transformative impact Maddison has had means he’s a very important player, and if he was to miss any games, Tottenham would feel it.
“That’s the biggest fear for Spurs, his fitness and maintaining that all year. If you take him out of that team it’s totally different. He’s a top class talent on the verge of being a world-class talent as soon as he gets on that stage,” Jenas added.
Indeed, Maddison is so important to his side because he’s the only player that occupies his position. They lacked creativity a lot of the time last season, and now they have a very good provider behind the striker, who’s got five assists and two goals this season.
While Odegaard is a quality asset, he’s not the most important player for his side, and hasn’t started as strong as last term. That being said, he is clearly a very good player, who’s been one of the best at a big side for a few seasons now.
While Maddison was performing for Leicester, he’s not done it at Spurs for very long yet, though that’s not to say he won’t maintain his form.
