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Of the Tottenham Hotspur players affected by the loan of Gareth Bale from Real Madrid, Dele Alli appears to be the most vulnerable, but manager José Mourinho has said he will not be sacrificed in the transfer window.
Bale won’t be ready to resume his Tottenham career until October, when he regains form, but when he does, he’s likely in an attacking trio with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min.
Alli burst into the limelight at Tottenham in 2015-16 when he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year and made his England debut, but his form has fallen to such an extent that he has lost his place in Mourinho’s squad.
Also abandoned in Gareth Southgate’s last England team, Alli, now 24, finds himself at a crossroads.
His preferred position, playing just behind two forwards, seems tailor-made for Bale and Mourinho also has a host of attacking options in the form of Lucas Moura, Steven Bergwijn, Giovani Lo Celso and Erik Lamela.
Mourinho demands a high work ethic and a recent behind-the-scenes documentary about Tottenham featured an episode in which Mourinho tells Alli that he is “lazy” and then, in a one-on-one chat, warns him that he might regret not reached its potential.
Alli was substituted at halftime in Tottenham’s first Premier League game of the new season, a 1-0 loss to Everton, and was not involved at all in last week’s Europa League win at Lokomotiv Plovdiv. , nor in Sunday’s 5-2 win at Southampton in which Son scored four goals.
With three weeks left in the transfer window, Alli’s name is already linked to a move to Paris St Germain, but his value is not what it was when he scored twice for Tottenham in their first win against Real Madrid in 2017. .
“I want a balanced team, that’s what I want. It doesn’t need to be sacrificed, but the team is a puzzle,” Mourinho said when asked about Alli’s future on Sunday.
Former Tottenham midfielder Michael Brown believes it would be better for everyone if he sold himself to Alli.
“They don’t seem to be getting along very well,” Brown told BBC Radio.
“I hope he has a reaction and takes the challenge head-on, but it doesn’t look good and maybe this one is broken.”
