Tottenham Hotspur Links: Dele Alli Must Be Protected from His New Reality
It’s an all Spurs edition of Tottenham Hotspur Links
On tap today Tottenham Hotspur Links will be bringing nothing but Tottenham-related news. The first article is about Dele Alli and protecting him from a dramatic change in his life after a rapid start to his season since joining Spurs (officially signed last January) in the summer. Up next, Nabil Bentaleb isn’t 100 percent fit to feature against West Ham United. And lastly, Andros Townsend is back training with Tottenham’s first team. These are the links, so let’s get to them.
- Tottenham must protect Dele Alli from his ‘new reality’
- [via TEAMtalk]
The meteoric rise of Dele Alli’s career is happening all too fast and Mauricio Pochettino knows it’s time for his club to help Alli adjust to a sense of culture shock so to speak. Fans might expect unreasonable performances from Alli despite his age.
RELATED: Tottenham Links: Spurs are London’s Second Best Team this Year
Dele Alli is 19-years-old and there’s no way that he’ll maintain his current form for the rest of the year or even next season. Nabil Bentaleb and Harry Kane are proof that there will be slumps along the way. You just have to keep working hard and eventually things will get better. This is the “new reality” that Mauricio Pochettino is talking about.
“I think we need to be careful with him because a lot of things have changed with him now, in his new reality,” said Pochettino. “We need to protect him. It’s impossible to stop all of that around him but we need to protect him to try to make sure he keeps his feet on the ground so he can keep developing his potential.”
- Nabil Bentaleb suffers an injury setback
- [via The Guardian]
During Algeria’s first leg, a 2-2 draw against Tanzania in their World Cup qualifiers, Nabil Bentaleb came on during the start of the second half and played for the rest of the game (45 minutes). Afterwards, Bentaleb didn’t suffer a major injury and was able to play in Algeria’s second leg, a 7-0 win but had to come off in the 37th minute after starting and picking up a 28th minute yellow card.
Differing opinions for Bentaleb’s early exit included: an injury setback, fatigue due to long injury lay-off or an early booking. At the time, it seemed that the 20-year-old midfielder wasn’t injured and could feature in Sunday’s London derby against West Ham United. But no longer, Bentaleb is hurt again.
More from Hotspur HQ
- Storybook ending after difficult period for Tottenahm’s Richarlison
- Tottenham comeback showcased invaluable intangible Ange has cultivated
- Tottenham player ratings in 2-1 comeback win over Sheffield United
- Tottenham projected starting 11 for Sheffield United
- Tottenham’s Richarlison says he’s going to seek psychological help
He did in fact suffer a setback to his ankle injury but nothing serious. As a precautionary measure, he won’t play on Sunday. Here’s Pochettino explaining what happened to Nabil Bentaleb.
“If you see it, you will see that it was a very, very bad tackle,” Pochettino said. “It was to the same ankle that has kept him out this season. He was lucky and we were lucky that it’s not a big issue. Maybe for Qarabag or Chelsea, he will be available.
We feel sorry for Nabil because he was very close to being able to compete in the week that we played Arsenal before the international break. We agreed that it would be a good opportunity for him to compete again if he went away with his national team. This is one step back for him. It is difficult for him to be available for Sunday.”
Mauricio Pochettino could have banished the 24-year-old winger from the team until January and then sold him. But with a heavily congested schedule starting this Sunday, nine games in a span of 37 days, Andros Townsend needed to be brought back to lighten the load of Érik Lamela or Christian Eriksen from playing too many games.
“Andros started training with the group again on Tuesday,” said Pochettino. It was a problem for which he has apologised. He is still young and needs to improve. For me, forget the past, if he deserves to be in the squad, then it is not a problem. We need to forget that and we need to give him the possibility to be part of the team.”
Next: Dele Alli Set to Double Pay with Tottenham
With Lamela facing a one game suspension from yellow card accumulation, Andros Townsend will be a plug-and-play option to be Pochettino’s starting right midfielder against West Ham. He could also probably start once again against Qarabağ FK on Thursday during Spurs’ Europa League fixture. From now until January, Townsend could start a few more games before he is either sold or loaned. If not, then he’ll remain with Tottenham until the start of next season.