‘Dele was willing to take risks – he was without fear’

Dan Micciche tells Julian Bennetts how he helped a special talent on the road to stardom ‘It wasn’t about bending the rules, it was about having empathy for a kid aged 11’ ‘It’s weird – I went to the airport and he’s on a huge advert there. But he hasn’t

Dan Micciche laughs when asked if he thinks Dele Alli, his former protege, will be overawed by his World Cup debut. There have been, Micciche explains, plenty of times in Alli’s career when he should have been nervous – not least when he played Alli, then aged 14, against an adult non-league side to test him. But Micciche is convinced that Alli thrives under pressure – and the bigger the stage, the more the 22-year-old relishes it.

For an England team who have too often seemed overawed by the spotlight, Alli’s fearlessness might be what they need.

“I went to Tottenham’s last game of the season and went to see Dele afterwards,” says Micciche, who was head of the Milton Keynes Dons Academy from 2007 to 2013 as Alli came through the youth system. “You’d never think he’d just played in a Premier League match and was about to go to the World Cup. Instead, he was reminding me about a game I left him out of when he was 15. He has no fear.”

The first time Micciche saw Alli play was for MK Dons under-12s against Tottenham, when the small No10 scored twice in his side’s 5-4 defeat and attempted to chip the goalkeeper from 30 yards. “Dele was creative, different; a bit more extravagant than anyone else,” he explains. “Kids often play safe at that age, but he would try things.” At that age, football was Alli’s escape from a childhood that was far from typical. His father, Kenny, left the country a week after he was born and his mother, Denise, struggled with four children to look after. He is now estranged from both of them.

“I was aware of his situation. To develop the player you need to know and understand the person,” says Micciche. “So, rather than giving him a b------ing if he missed training, it was about being aware and empathetic to the fact he might not have been able to get there as easily as someone else. It wasn’t about bending the rules, it was having empathy for an 11-year-old kid.”

That empathy remained throughout the six years they worked together, as Micciche became a key influence on the youngster. Alli has previously referred to him as his mentor, but until now Micciche has not explained the lengths he went to in order to ensure Alli fulfilled his potential.

“The thing with Dele is, he always wanted to be challenged,” says Micciche. “He was the type of young player that it might be easy as a coach to be put off by – he was a risk-taker. Things would go wrong and he would make mistakes.

“He responded more to the environment he was in than direct coaching. Aged

14, I realised he might respond more to playing against St Albans’ first team than to a structured coaching session. He loved that environment, playing against 28-year-olds.

“Sometimes, we would turn up to games with 10 players to see how they would cope. I asked Dele to play against a professional futsal team, and we’d change the pitches they played on, make them narrower to funnel play into the middle. We did those things so that Dele and the other players learnt the game. In order to be creative you need to problemsolve – and Dele always could.”

The one problem Alli struggled to solve, though, was his temper. Micciche introduced a one-minute sin-bin for any player who stepped out of line, no matter the stage or importance of the match.

“If he did something the ref didn’t see or he got away with something he wouldn’t in an adult game, then he would go into the sin-bin for a minute,” says Micciche. “He could calm down, reflect, slow his breathing down.

“People term Dele as being on edge, but I think it’s more that he’s competitive. But there was a balance there [between competitiveness and controlling his temper].” With his temper under control, Alli thrived under Micciche. His circumstances off the pitch were also improving as he moved in with the family of a team-mate, Harry Hickford.

“The Hickfords gave him excellent support, and they deserve a lot of credit. From my point of view, I made sure I was approachable, that I saw him as more than a footballer. His schooling was important and Dele was always intelligent, though he wasn’t motivated by school.”

Others began to notice his talent. After a 12-year-old Alli scored twice in a 4-3 win over Tottenham, Micciche was approached by Chris Ramsey, then at Spurs. “He said to me, ‘I’ll pay £5,000 for your No 10 tomorrow’, ” Micciche recalls. “I said, ‘Chris, that wouldn’t pay