Now, sorry seems to be the easiest word

RIGHT now, one of the few dispiriting things about professional football is the tendency of modern players and managers to apologise to fans.

- ANDY DUNN

It seems there are a lot of people who expect those players and managers to beat themselves up when things are not going so well. Perform terribly, say sorry to your followers, maybe even refund their travel expenses.

It is faintly pathetic.

James Maddison clearly thinks so.

When asked if he thought the Tottenham team “owed them [supporters] one in this competition [Europa League], given what they've been going through", Maddison did not exactly toe what has become the party line.

"They or we? We've been going through it,” he said.

And when it was then suggested that “you've been putting them through it with the results in the league", Maddison replied: “On purpose?”

Good on him.

At the moment, there is a lot of talk about fans - real fans, tourist fans, etc. The game has probably always had both.

But here's the truth. If you support a club, you support the players through thick and thin. Or thin and thin, in some cases. That's the contract.