ALLI OR NOTHING

Jose: I’m getting tired of the Dele questions... he needs to prove he can be a special player

JOSE MOURINHO has told Dele Alli to prove he can be the new Special One.

The Tottenham boss said it is unfair that Alli’s absence has been so widely highlighted, but he also challenged the 24-year-old England international to sort himself out.

Mourinho has insisted Alli must be more consistent and reliable, rather than go missing in games, as he prepares to bring him back for tonight’s Europa League third qualifying-round tie against Shkendija in north Macedonia.

With a touch of sarcasm, Mourinho said: “My players must be special players and I must be at a special club, because every club has situations where players are not playing, are on the bench, are not selected.

“But it looks like only for us that every time some player doesn’t play, or is not selected, it’s like something that doesn’t happen at other places.

“We all know Dele has had ups and downs. He had fabulous periods and also periods where he disappeared.

“He had moments when he was so good and moments when he was not so good.

“When you are not in a good moment you don’t play and it is as simple as that.

“Players have to prove with their performance how good they are in a specific moment.

“Tomorrow he is selected. No decision yet about starting or being on the bench, but if he is on the pitch one minute or 90 minutes he has to show us.”

It is down to the manager to get the he best out of Alli li

(with Mourinho, right), but clearly the doubts are wearing thin with the boss, who snapped at yet another reference rzon to the Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary docuAll Or Nothing

and a scene involving Alli.

He said: “I’m tired of Amazon and I’m not tired of Dele because he’s a great kid. But I’m tired of questions on Dele Alli.”

What was more understandable was Mourinho’s frustration after another trying week, as their Carabao Cup tie with Leyton Orient was postponed amid shambolic scenes when the League Two club had a coronavirus outbreak.

He said: “It is a competition where I have a history and Tottenham has a history.

“It was the last trophy Tottenham won and it’s a competition where we feel we have the same rights as everyone else to compete.

“But in relation to testing and

Covid and all of this situation, I don’t want to go into this world of contradictions.”

POSSIBLE TEAMS SHKENDIJA: Zahov, Murati, Pavic, Bejtulai, Krivak, Nafiu, Dita, Ahmedi, Totre, Ibraimi, Doriev.

Lloris, Doherty, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies, Sissoko, Winks, Alli, Lo Celso, Son, Kane.

Ali Palabıyık (Turkey). Premier Sports 1, 7pm.