James Maddison deletes old tweets calling Tottenham legend Gareth Bale a 'monkey' & saying he dislikes Spurs ahead of £45m transfer

Tottenham-bound James Maddison has deleted old tweets of him criticising Spurs ahead of his £45 million ($51m) move from Leicester City.

 The Leicester City star is set to complete a move to Tottenham after the Championship side accepted an offer of £40 million upfront with a potential extra £5m to be paid in add-ons. However, ahead of his transfer, fans have spotted two revealing tweets from 2012 and 2013 that have since been removed from the England international's account - as reported by the Daily Mail. One involved him calling club legend Gareth Bale, who played 237 times for Spurs over two spells, a "monkey", with the other saying that he disliked the north London club.

 On November 17, 2012, Maddison, who was 15 at the time, tweeted: "I hate Gareth Bale with a passion, calm down you monkey, [Jack] Wilshere is 10x better than you chimpanzee."

Then, on March 10, 2013, the-then 16-year-old wrote: "Hope Luis Suarez destroys Tottenham today, don't like Spurs! Especially that monkey everyone's on about!"

A teenage Maddison was playing for Coventry City's youth team when he posted the tweets, which resurfaced on social media when he was first linked with Tottenham. Maddison has reportedly agreed terms of £170,000-a-week at Spurs and Leicester, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, have allowed him to go and complete a medical on Wednesday.

Maddison is set to join Ange Postecoglou’s new Tottenham squad next month when he finishes his summer break.