Tottenham: Dele Alli at crossroads with football and Spurs
By Aaron Coe
What’s next for Dele Alli?
At this point, only beginning his sixth season as a top-flight professional, Dele Alli has some decisions to make. Mourinho made it clear in the second episode of “All or Nothing”, Dele will regret not putting more into his football and I think Jose is 100 percent right.
Mourinho – like him or not – is arguably one of the best coaches in world football, ever. If one of the best coaches, ever, calling your work habits out for all the world to see does not get a player to improve, nothing will. At this point, beyond whether Dele will regret it, frankly his career is on the line at this point.
Maybe it is hyperbole as someone, somewhere would sign Dele again, but his coach, the greatest of all time just called him out. How Dele responds is going to tell every future coach a lot about him and it might not be something Dele likes. Alternatively, if Dele responds and can bring back the magic of old, not only can be a superstar again, he would suddenly be a player every coach wanted, as he can respond when the going gets tough.
One coach watching all this play out is Gareth Southgate, who has not featured Dele Alli since the Nations League Final back in June 2019, over a year ago. When Southgate left Dele out of his most recent selection, his comments beyond praising the talent in the pool, were to the effect of Dele knowing what he needed to do to get back in the team. Now thanks to Jose Mourinho, so does the rest of the world. The question is, what is Dele Alli going to do about it?