James Maddison is entitled to feel disappointed. He ran into an injury when his form was hot at Tottenham and returned to find his team misfiring and unsettled. Neither of those issues was of his making. He has performed well when called upon by England recently, including a cameo from the bench against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday in Newcastle, when he helped lift the tempo in a friendly played at a pedestrian pace. ‘Devastated doesn't quite cut it,' said Maddison on Thursday, but he can have few complaints about the decision, and if reports of an immature exit tantrum are accurate, boss Gareth Southgate is entitled to think this selection call was spot on.

Questions about attitude have stalked the 27-year-old midfielder since his teenage years when, depending on who you ask, he was either blessed by extreme confidence or a bit too flash for his own good. The fallout from the casino episode has been difficult to shake off. That was in 2019 when Maddison was uncapped. Spurs' James Maddison failed to make Gareth Southgate's final 26-man squad for Euro 2024 The England boss Southgate revealed that recent club form was a key factor in his decision  Maddison enjoyed a fruitful start to the season with Tottenham as the side won eight of their first 10 matches Podcast All episodes EPISODE 91: Can Manchester City cope without Pep Guardiola? EPISODE 90: How Manchester United CAN win crunch FA Cup clash EPISODE 89: Why Manchester City aren't the reason the League is boring 'It hasn't worked!' Is VAR the problem or the solution? EPISODE 87: Why United must tear down Old Trafford and move to Wembley Play on Apple Spotify He withdrew feeling unwell from Southgate's squad before a Euro 2020 qualifier in the Czech Republic, only to be pictured at the poker tables in a Leicester casino on the night of the game.

A month later, he returned to win his first cap as a substitute against Montenegro, but waited more than three years for a second, after which he laughed off the poker furore, claiming it was ‘ridiculous' and had been ‘blown out of proportion', insisting it was ‘not a big deal for gopek 178 slot Gareth'. Maddison likes to play cards and snooker, and enjoys a night at the darts so much that he has turned the arrows into his signature goal celebration, an opportunity Brentford forward and wind-up artist Neal Maupay found too hard to resist.

Read More Gareth Southgate reveals why he axed Jack Grealish and James Maddison from England squad After scoring the opener for the Bees at Spurs on Maddison's first start after his injury, Maupay borrowed the move and celebrated by pretending to throw darts at a TV camera. The pair exchanged words on the pitch and the contest became increasingly tetchy as Spurs ran out 3-2 winners, celebrating the goals with more imaginary darts. The silliness kept coming later.

‘He probably hasn't scored enough goals in the last couple of years for his own celebration,' said Maddison on TV, which prompted Maupay to respond on social media with, ‘More goals and less relegations in my career than James Maddison'. On Thursday, as Southgate's decisions crystalised, Maupay was back on social media to post a picture of himself holding three darts as the dartboard encircled his beaming face like a halo.