Mourinho Again Hooked Troubled Dele Alli And It's Clear He Must Move

 

Imagine the mischief in his eyes when, during his first training session as manager of Tottenham Hotspur, he marched up to Dele Alli and said: 'Are you Dele or Dele's brother?'

Alli: 'I'm Dele'.

Mourinho: 'Ok… then play like Dele.'

And for a desperately short while, Dele Alli did play like Dele Alli. Four goals and three assists in Mourinho's first five matches in charge.

It's remarkable to think that purple patch wasn't even 12 months ago. Unfortunately and sadly, Alli quickly reverted to type and we continue to see this shadow footballer on the field and wonder why.

Another week and another low point. Admittedly Alli was one of four players hooked at half-time as Tottenham slumped to a miserable Europa League defeat by Antwerp but let's not forget this is the second time this season the midfielder has started a match and not made it past half-time.

Dele's downfall shows no signs of slowing. The England international is only 24 but many are starting to believe his career peaked at 21 or 22.

The impudence that marked his game a few years ago, the confidence to attempt things most footballers wouldn't dare or even think possible, has vanished.

The joy with which Alli once approached his craft, the ability to spot passes, to drive Spurs forward, to score goals worthy of the season highlights reel, has somehow sapped away.

In Belgium on Thursday night, all we saw was a reluctance to take those kind of gambles, passes going astray and a general funk that seemed to afflict the whole Spurs team.

'Sloppy play is not going to get him back in the team,' as Glenn Hoddle observed in the BT Sport studio.

And though Mourinho is a poisonous presence for any footballer struggling with their game, this decline started long before he replaced Mauricio Pochettino last year.

So little has gone right in the two-and-a-bit years since Alli ghosted in behind the Sweden defence to score for England in a World Cup quarter-final.

Now he barely gets in the squad for his club, let alone start in the biggest games for his country. And when he does play, they're cameos where you barely notice he's there at all.

Tottenham have played 12 matches so far this season and Alli has made the squad for just half of them. He has started three and come off the bench in three for a total game time of 243 minutes.

It wasn't evident in Antwerp but Mourinho does have a powerful forward line at his disposal. The likes of Harry Kane, Lucas Moura, Son Heung-min, Erik Lamela and Steven Bergwijn added to over the summer with Gareth Bale and Carlos Vinicius.

It just isn't immediately obvious any more where Alli fits in to Mourinho's plans and the often brusque manager isn't afraid to kick a man when he's down.

'You always ask why this player is not playing,' Mourinho said of Alli on Thursday evening. 'Maybe now, for a few weeks, you won't ask me that because you have the answer.'

The message was clear enough. Alli is surplus to requirements, a dead weight.

It was reminiscent of the time when Mourinho rested Romelu Lukaku for Manchester United's defeat at Brighton in May 2018, fielding Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial instead.

'For 10 months I get asked "why always Lukaku? Why always Lukaku? Why always this player?" The guy doesn't have a chance to start, the other one is on the bench. You know why now.'

Put simply, if Mourinho doesn't rate you, there's not much point hanging around. This is a loveless marriage between player and manager and Alli, if he has any sense, will to seek a way out of Tottenham in January, on loan at least.

The cracks have long been apparent, exposed by the Amazon documentary on Mourinho's first few months in charge at Spurs.

In one scene, Mourinho tells Alli 'you're f****** lazy' during training and in a face-to-face meeting, he questions Alli's lifestyle, suggesting he is a 'party boy.'

Mourinho mentions the stunning moments of skills that brought about Alli's rapid rise from MK Dons to Spurs and England, challenging him to find that kind of form again. But Alli hasn't been producing for some time now.

Not long after doing well for England at the 2018 World Cup, Alli was rewarded with a five-year, £150,000-a-week contract but it's been downhill ever since.

The 2017-18 campaign leading into that World Cup now looks like a halcyon time for Alli, who scored 14 goals and contributed 17 assists.

The following season was more difficult. Afflicted by hamstring and thigh injuries which disrupted his campaign, his numbers dropped off but nonetheless he still played a big role in helping Spurs to the Champions League final.

Every player is going to suffer up and downs but that season should have been a one-off but wasn't.

Another hamstring injury at the start of 2019-20 coincided with mounting evidence that Alli wasn't going to be the man to rescue under-pressure Pochettino.

The spark had gone from his game, opponents knew how to snuff him out and there was - and continues to be - a decline in the number of shots attempted and chances created.

Pochettino's switch in tactics to a midfield diamond didn't suit Alli's strengths and he started to fade from games he once would have taken by the scruff of the neck.

Soon he was out of Gareth Southgate's England squad having been an automatic pick for three years. His chances of making Euro 2020 next year are currently remote, to say the least.

That upturn in form when Mourinho first arrived proved short-lived and was followed by more regression.

Amazon documentary revelations aside, there have been off-field issues - some self-inflicted, some not - to add to the misery.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Alli appeared to mock an Asian man in a Snapchat video and was banned for one match and fined £50,000 by the Football Association.

Lockdown also saw Alli held at knifepoint by burglars at his north London home. He was punched and suffered minor facial injuries before the intruders made off with jewellery and watches in what must have been a frightening incident.

The jibes from Mourinho were then revealed to the world in the fly-on-the-wall series - the Spurs manager's constant pops at Alli are similar to his relentless scapegoating of Luke Shaw at United - and now there appears no way back.

'It's about him, it's not about me. We are an external source of motivation for a player, but if the player is not the motivation, if the player is not the one that really wants it, we can't do much,' Mourinho said when asked about Alli this week.

'The level is very high. The Kanes, the Sons, these guys are putting the level so, so high for the others to get minutes in these attacking positions.'

If that message from Mourinho didn't cut through, hauling Alli off on Thursday night surely did.

In order to resurrect a career that has gone so disappointingly flat, Alli needs a fresh start elsewhere and he needs it quick.