Dele Alli at Everton

[Singaspursofsixspence]

Would Dele’s departure affect our Homegrown numbers? We would have Stevie, Son, Bale, Lucas and Lamela fighting for the two spots behind Kane

 

[Marty]

Would Dele’s departure affect our Homegrown numbers? We would have Stevie, Son, Bale, Lucas and Lamela fighting for the two spots behind Kane

Yes, we're right on the edge of homegrown numbers as is, and why a player like Josh King makes sense as backup striker.

 

[St Neots Yid]

We’ve had Alli, Dele Alli
I just don’t think you understand
He only cost five mill
He’s left before Ozil
We’ve had Dele Alli

 

[Wadec]

When Liverpool sold Coutinho they sold their 'best player at the time. They used that money to improve other areas of their team and adjusted their system to allow their front 3 more freedom. I think its fair to say they have reaped the rewards since.

Whilst I would be gutted to lose Dele, but if it allows us to improve our team we have to back the manager.

We see many posts on this site highlighting that the team hasn't developed enough and our squad lacks depth in key areas. If this sale allows us to address it we have to do that. As he says in the Netflix programme Jose manages a team not players.

I would genuinely wish Dele the best though, no hard feelings towards him.

 

[spursfan77]

I’m not sure he’s going anywhere. Mourinho has played this trick with established players before. Earlier this year (maybe last year) there was an article on Mourinho in 442 magazine and an interview with the Porto goalie victor baia who said he was dropped for a series of games under Mourinho despite being club captain. In due course he realised Mourinho did it to not just provoke a response from him but also other members of the squad. It was a statement that nobody’s place is safe. That everyone has to fight for their right to be in the team no matter who they are.

I’m not sure the interview ever found it’s way online as it was in the magazine but it’s worth searching out as there are definite similarities here with Dele so he could just be pulling one of his old tricks.

Found it. Could this just be what is going on with Dele? Mourinho has done it so many times before. It just strikes a cord with me that what we see from the outside, isn't what is actually going on, or what was going on with Ndombele.

Jose Mourinho's quest for Champions League history: the 6 games that defined his search for greatness

Mourinho could become the first manager to win the competition with three different clubs. But 10 long years have passed since he last won it, and now RB Leipzig stand in his way

www.fourfourtwo.com

But Baia got a surprise eight months into Mourinho’s Porto reign, when the keeper was suspended from the squad. “I was shocked,” admits Baia. “I mean, we had an argument, but it was strategically created by him, and that argument resulted in my suspension. He knew me really well. One day, he provoked me, sure that I’d react.
“But now, I understand what he did. He was a young manager; I was an experienced player who knew him very well. We actually had a social relationship off the pitch. He wanted to show everyone I wasn’t special; that I was just another member of the group. So, he created that situation. It was a strategy, and it worked perfectly.
“A month later, he requested my presence in his office. He simply asked if I wanted to play the next match, at Austria Vienna. I said I was keen, and he told me to get ready for it. I came back as the first-choice keeper, the position I had left a month before.
“Mourinho is a very, very intelligent man. He is a proper leader. Even when he creates a situation, his only thought is to make the team stronger. That episode was his emancipation as a manager. He put me in a complicated position, but it left me full of energy to prove there’d been a misunderstanding, and it was a clear message to the rest of the squad: they’d be punished for any mistake. From that moment on, leadership had been achieved, and he could show his talent as a football manager.”

 

[Ekmek]

Would be very disappointed if he leaves.

 

[Japhet]

I'll be sad to see Dele go if that's how it pans out. However, I won't be sad to see the back of the sytems we've had to employ to get anything worthwhile out of him. We continually have to go light in midfield to accomodate him as a free forward. IMO, we don't have the midfield options to do that, and haven't had those options since peak Dembele and Wanyama. It seems obvious to me that 433 is the way forward for us, or at least a formation that doesn't rely on 2 in CM. Now that we have Son, Lamela, Bergwijn, Bale, Lucas as the main players to accompany Kane in the front line, I struggle to see where Dele fits in our plans. If he brings in enough wonga to strengthen elsewhere I'm OK with it and hope for a Liverpool'esq use of the incoming funds. As I said absolutely ages ago, I'd have swapped Dele for Zakaria in a heartbeat.

 

[yankspurs]

The problem with Dele is that to get the best out of him you have to build the team around him. Mourinho has done that and he still hasn't performed consistently which becomes massively detrimental to the balance of the whole team. The only way a player like Alli can work at a big club is if he's a truly world class player. He is probably better becoming a big fish in a small pond somewhere now imo, in a team that will accommodate his unique strengths and weaknesses.

The problem with Dele is his work ethic. He could be an incredible player for any club if he wanted and worked at it. Right now, he’s better off being a lower clubs Zaha. He should be much further along than that. But his celebrity got to his head and now that’s all he’s focused on. Unless football takes priority again to Dele, i cant see his career going anywhere else.

 

[AllReb]

The 4-2-3-1 he religiously stuck to during 19/20, with Dele barely ever dropped?

Ok so because Dele wasn’t dropped then that means the system was built around him?

Are you saying that if Dele didn’t play in a particular game that system you mentioned wouldn’t have been used?

 

[Rooga]

If he does go to PSG (and I'm finding myself less and less bothered about it if I'm perfectly honest), I'd be intrigued to see him introduce baked beans to the Paris haute cuisine scene...

 

[freeeki]

If you think moving Dele on is a terrible idea, you presumably haven’t watched Dele much in the last two years.

He’s worth a lot, and offering very little.

Selling Dele and replacing him with someone more Eriksen-esque who can actually play across various positions and doesn’t require the team being built around them in order to function makes perfect sense.

As for “what about Lamela and Moura” - what about them? We need to move on more than one player, but this is about Dele.

 

[WiganSpur]

If you think moving Dele on is a terrible idea, you presumably haven’t watched Dele much in the last two years.

He’s worth a lot, and offering very little.

Selling Dele and replacing him with someone more Eriksen-esque who can actually play across various positions and doesn’t require the team being built around them in order to function makes perfect sense.

As for “what about Lamela and Moura” - what about them? We need to move on more than one player, but this is about Dele.

It may be that we replace him with Eriksen himself.

 

[RikkiRocket]

les haricots signifient heinz?

 

[spursfan77]

The problem with Dele is his work ethic. He could be an incredible player for any club if he wanted and worked at it. Right now, he’s better off being a lower clubs Zaha. He should be much further along than that. But his celebrity got to his head and now that’s all he’s focused on. Unless football takes priority again to Dele, i cant see his career going anywhere else.

Poch even touched on it in his book. Just reading a report on Dele on the Athletic from over the weekend and the writer puts this bit in from Poch’s book. It probably speaks volumes and is a reason why Poch and now Jose can’t get the best out of him.

“Don’t forget that when Mauricio Pochettino published his 2017 book, Brave New World, the then-Spurs manager acclaimed Dele for signing from Milton Keynes Dons with “a burning need to prove his worth and showed that hunger in every training session, constantly putting his body on the line”.
The old Dele could never have been accused of coasting through training sessions. But Pochettino also made the point that there was a new Dele, too.
Dele, he explained, had signed three new contracts, each including a wage hike, and it was normal for the player to believe, and to be told by his entourage, that he had a new place in the hierarchy. That, in turn, meant handling him a different way. “A year ago, you could yell at Dele during a session, but now you necessarily have to strike a different tone,” Pochettino wrote. “It is a very delicate balance.”

 

[thebenjamin]

I wonder if he's going to an English club. Psg can only do loans at the moment according to reports in France. Would,hate to see that happen.

 

[DanNolan]

Levy would hate to sell him in England and it’s bot a funds thing for me it’s more about wages so loan should work. I don’t want him to go I think there’s so many games he’ll prove himself.

shame really I know a relative of Dele and shehas the impression he feels spurs fans have turned on him, social media especially. I think Covid , lockdown and the lack of hearing the fans cheer for him leaves him probably reading a lot of negativity in social media. It’s very sad as at games I feel he’s the best supported player outside of Son.

 

[nattydredd]

I’ll be gutted if Dele leaves

Agreed, totally and 100%

 

[DanNolan]

Agreed, totally and 100%

weak comparisons.... Alli has already performed at a Great level.... salah and De Bruyne were purely potential at that stage.. lukaku wasn’t very good for United let’s be honest.

 

[DiVaio]

Agreed, totally and 100%

This list doesn't make sense.
Dele situation are also much different than listed players

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Agreed, totally and 100%

Deco, Joe Cole, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder...