Alli career could take a dive too

DELE ALLI is at a crossroads.

He can take one route and go on to become a great, mature professional who ends up at Real Madrid or Barcelona and is hailed as England’s most talented footballer.

Or he takes another and runs into some of the problems I had in my career – making the wrong choices at the wrong time, surrounded by the wrong people – leaves people frustrated and fails to fulfil his potential.

I used to think it was quite funny a year or two ago, with him and Eric Dier being Instagram mates and a bit of childishness.

But Alli (right) is basically acting like a spoilt brat and building up quite a rap sheet with the dive against Liverpool on Sunday.

This sort of thing has been going on with him for quite a while now and he needs to pull his finger out otherwise he will have a major problem.

He must shape up and help Spurs win something and then move on to one of the big boys of the world, which he could easily do.

The alternative is it doesn’t quite happen for him over the next few years, Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino get fed-up with him, he bounces from club to club and we look back in his career and say, “He could have done much more”.

As someone who that happened to, I know the choice is his.

He has a massive chance to be one of the world’s best midfielders. His goal against Crystal Palace two seasons ago was one which only a small group of players could score.

He has goals, great ability, can pass, great athleticism. But people are starting to use words like immature, prat and much worse when they talk about him – not words you want to be associated with.

Dele, take it from an older and hopefully a little bit wiser man; go on and be the worldclass player you can be and get everything out of the game your talent deserves.