Photo credit: Coral
by Samuel A. January 28, 2023
When fans of England’s Three Lions watched Dele Alli head Raheem Sterling’s cross beyond Robin Olsen to send their national team through to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018, little or none of them would have been able to predict the midfielder’s subsequent fall from grace five years later. At 26 years old, it still feels like there’s little time left to reignite his career, but his recent performances have been abysmal, to say the least, and if there’s any chance that things would change, it has to start now.
Born and raised in Milton Keynes, Bamidele Alli joined the youth academy at Milton Keynes Dons aged 11. Due to his abilities, he broke into the first team five years later, at 16 years. In the 2012–13 season, Dele’s debut season at the senior football level didn’t see him do too much of anything, rather than a few minutes off the bench on a couple of occasions. However, over the next two-and-a-half years Dele made 88 official appearances for the team, scoring 24 goals, thus attracting the attention of North London giants, Tottenham Hotspur. “Today, football is about being versatile,” Manager Mauricio Pochettino said in the first press conference after Alli’s signature, stating that Alli is the perfect fluid player to help Spurs in matches where everything is congested. As time passed on, Alli proved to be essential indeed, scoring and assisting, winning PFA awards in the 2015-16, and 2016-17 seasons. Alli’s goal against Sweden that sent England to the semis is right up there. An emphatic effort in a World Cup quarter-final, bringing joy to millions, is meant to be the start and not the end. Instead, though, it would end up being his third and final England goal, barring a return to form which has not looked likely since Pochettino left Tottenham in 2019. While Pochettino looked like the perfect fit for Alli, it didn’t take a genius to figure out he’d likely have a tougher time under Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese coaching style is far less of a “men managing”, and there was a sense that any efforts to endear himself to Mou would not end well.
Dele’s struggles wasn’t about rediscovering past form, but about delivering in the here and now without any reference back to the glory days, and that’s something the midfielder failed to do with any iota of consistency. “I have no doubts about your potential,” Mourinho said to Alli during the Tottenham All or Nothing documentary. “I saw you do incredible things in incredible matches. But I always felt that you had ups and downs.” There is a huge difference between a player who has consistency and a player who has moments. That is what makes the difference between a legend, top player and a player with top potential. “I am not expecting you to be the man of the match every game. I am not expecting you to score goals every game. I just want to tell you that you will regret it if you don’t reach your potential” the manager continued. Two years later, though, it appears that tough love hasn’t had the desired effect. There were brief moments where the quality shone through, be it at Spurs or even for flickers at Everton, but Alli never looked likely to respond to the kind of tough love Mourinho has been prone to offer. The question is whether a different approach or a different manager just might have done the trick when he was at Tottenham, but that’s something we would never know. Perhaps the Besiktas loan is exactly what he needs. Let’s be frank, he is still just 26. He might have more miles in his legs than others of a similar age, having racked up the minutes so young, but there’s still time for him to recover his mojo. Now it’s all about remembering what made him unleash his talents and reminding us of what we saw between 2016-19.
