Johnny Phillips: No delight in seeing Dele Alli take the Turkish option

It is just over four years ago that Mauricio Pochettino described him as “the best 21-year-old footballer in the world”. Back in March 2018 it was easy to see why Alli’s manager at Tottenham Hotspur held him in such high regard. PFA Player of the Year twice in his opening two seasons at Spurs, he would go on to become an integral part of the England side which reached the World Cup semi-final against Croatia. His goals and creativity were the spark that drove Pochettino’s side to the next level. At £5million from MK Dons, Spurs appeared to have acquired the bargain of the decade when he signed on at White Hart Lane in early 2015.

The north London club would go on to make a significant profit on the player, when he moved to Everton for a deal potentially worth upto £40m, although the Blues will never pay the full amount owing to the performance targets of the deal not in danger of being achieved.

After the World Cup in Russia, Alli’s form started to decline, perhaps fatigue was a factor, but he was still valuable enough to start the 2019 Champions’ League final in Madrid, and there was no suggestion that he was on the road he now finds himself.

Goals and assists had been a key part of his game but they dipped noticeably in that 2018/19 season and once Pochettino left in November 2019 they never really recovered. It would be too simplistic to say that his downfall had Jose Mourinho’s handprints all over it, because his numbers were already dropping and there was an immediate upturn in Alli’s fortunes when the new manager moved him back to his preferred position as a roaming number 10.

But it did not last. There was that staged scene in the Amazon documentary, All Or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, when Mourinho sat Alli down in his office. “There is a huge difference between a player that keeps consistency and a player who has moments,” Mourinho warned, before going on to suggest that Alli’s lifestyle may lead him to regretting a career that could go unfulfilled. “You should demand more from you,” was Mourinho’s parting instruction.

It was not long before Alli was out of the starting line-up, even out of the first team squad altogether on several occasions. He was only 23 when by the time he clocked up 50 Premier League goals but he has scored just one more in the last three seasons. When Mourinho departed Spurs there was hope of a fresh start. Alli played every minute of the opening five games under Nuno Espirito Santo at the start of 2021/22, winning and scoring a penalty against Wolves as Spurs won their opening three games of the season.

By the time Nuno’s short reign ended, Alli had become a peripheral figure once more and when Antonio Conte took over there was no chance of a recall. Alli was the misfit with no natural place in the side once it became clear that Conte preferred the front running of his three strikers and the ball-winning qualities of midfielders lying in deeper positions.

On first glance a move to join Frank Lampard at Everton in the New Year looked like a great opportunity. A once free-scoring midfielder was linking up with a young head coach who made a career out of scoring freely from midfield. But Everton was a club in crisis and it was soon apparent that Lampard was not in a position to indulge Alli.

The player was not trusted, even when others were failing to perform. He did have one memorable cameo, though, which Evertonians will remember with great affection. Trailing Crystal Palace 2-0 at home last May, it was Alli’s introduction in the second half that proved to be game-changing. He played a pivotal role in the comeback as Everton ran out 3-2 winners and secured their Premier League future.

Any hopes that a full pre-season under Lampard would help reinvigorate Alli have been dashed, though. He is a shadow of the player who produced that incredible control and volleyed finished against Palace at Selhurst Park in January 2016, or the star who plucked a long ball out of the sky and two touches later had it nestled in the back of the net as Chelsea were despatched at Stamford Bridge in April 2018. Gliding across the pitch with the ball at his feet, the deft flicks and nonchalant finishes. It as if we are talking about a different player from another era.

Alli was given a hero’s welcome when he arrived at Ataturk airport in Istanbul this week, although that is the usual form for a country’s football obsessives who welcome Premier League has-beens with open arms. At 26, nobody should be written off, though. If Alli can rediscover his mojo then there could still be many years at the top lying ahead, but for that to happen something significant needs to change to alter the course of a career in freefall.