FEARLESS AND FREE, ALLI’S GOT ALL THE ANGLES COVERED...
EVEN before kick-off at Tottenham on Wednesday, there was plenty of talk about Dele Alli. England manager Gareth Southgate was in attendance to watch Tottenham’s gaggle of England players and part of a discussion about Alli’s goal threat.
The 20-year-old is often at his best running on to diagonal crosses or passes, it was noted. Less than a couple of hours later, there was evidence of just that. Two diagonal crosses from Christian Eriksen and two goals from Alli against Chelsea. So Southgate may well be on to something.
They love their young goal-scoring midfielder at White Hart Lane and little wonder.
There was a little irritation recently when stories surfaced of interest from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
Chairman Daniel Levy is in no mood to do business over the player who is fast becoming his most saleable asset.
Levy is used to such fuss. He has been here before with Gareth Bale.
Alli’s star has risen more quickly, though, and in truth has been blazing a trail ever since Tottenham signed him from MK Dons on the last day of the January transfer window two years ago.
When we look at Alli now, when we see the effectiveness and maturity of his play, it is astonishing to think that he has only been playing Premier League football for 16 months.
Tottenham almost missed out on him. His progress at MK Dons having been tracked by their scouts for some time, they had always been ahead of the field. But only when the emergence of rival suitors from Liverpool, Aston Villa and Newcastle emerged were Levy and the Spurs board compelled to push the button.
Liverpool met Alli on Merseyside. Manager at the time Brendan Rodgers believed he was perfect for the club and he was right. Spurs knew about that meeting but were not worried.
They were almost blindsided by Newcastle, though, and – led by the drive and foresight of chief scout Graham Carr – the north-east club were so confident of signing Alli their media department had actually drafted a press release announcing his arrival before Spurs finally lined up their ducks and rushed through the transfer.
In Newcastle they still rue that day. Only yesterday the local paper, the Evening Chronicle rehashed a story about it. Back in London, how keen was Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino on the deal at the time? Let’s just say, the young arrival from League One was filed in his mind as a possibility for the future.
Initially loaned back to his previous club, Alli’s astounding progress from prospect to Premier League and England star has been put down to an almost unnatural ability to process new information and learn quickly.
Nobody at Tottenham – not even those who always trumpeted his cause – expected him to be at this level so soon.
MK Dons director of youth Mike Dove told the Daily Telegraph this week: “What is the common trait of the excellent player – whether they have a traditional background or not – is that they share the passion, drive and mental desire to learn their craft, to want to progress.
“But Dele is unique. He is fearfree. Nothing worries him. He’s not being arrogant, he’s just looking to get on the pitch and be entertaining.”
In an age when anybody with a computer and a willingness to pore over statistics can count himself as an expert on footballers, that Alli emerged so quickly is a triumph for old-fashioned scouting.
Logic dictated that he was not ready, hence his return to the Dons. But those who had actually closed their laptops and travelled to see him, in development games and first-team games, were convinced that English football had its next young and creative talent.
“Every time you watched him, he did something,” said one scout in the Midlands. “That isn’t usually the way with youngsters. Often, you go to watch and they give you nothing. Alli wasn’t like that, he always gave you something.”
Away from the field, the Alli back story is well known. Brought up by his mother after his father left days after his birth, Alli was not picked up by the Dons until he was 11. He is not a typical academy product.
Eventually moving in with the family of another MK youngster, he lived with Alan and Sally Hickford from the age of 13.
The Hickfords were there at the Lane to see Alli pick league leaders Chelsea apart.
Their own son Harry, who has not quite made the grade and in June he left MK Dons to join Forest Green of the National League, was there, too.
It is thought he is now working in some capacity for his friend’s agent, Rob Segal.
The respected Segal once told Sportsmail that young English players do not always get the chances or money they deserve and he had a point.
Alli – in more ways than one – is a player to break the mould. – Daily Mail