It wouldn’t give you the whole picture, to say that it had been a rough ride for Dele Alli since José Mourinho was appointed head coach at Tottenham. It might imply that Mourinho is somehow the problem, which he absolutely is not. Alli has also been avoided by Gareth Southgate.
Dele has been overtaken by the likes Phil Foden and Mason Mount, which must come as an indignity for Alli who has all the razzmatazz of a big English talent, but instead of delivering the goods on the pitch, has been watching as his fans miserably field a variety of excuses as to why he was coming close but it didn’t quite happen.
We all know the build up to this situation, endless tabloid splashes of the star with his model girlfriend, the endless endorsements, the robbery with hundreds of thousands of pounds in watches stolen, the boy hit headline after headline, but virtually never whilst wearing the shirt.
At the time of writing, Dele’s Instagram post has received over 200,000 likes, but I wonder of the superstar understands that the only ‘like’ worth a damn in his professional life would be one from José?