Dele Alli
Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder Dele Alli has taken responsibility for the woes of last season, and promises to make a good impact next season under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo. Amid another season of frustration for the north London club, it was safe to say that Alli’s campaign at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was one to forget. The 25-year-old spent the majority of the 2020/21 season on the fringes of the first team set-up. He made just 29 appearances for Spurs during the course of the season, with Alli finding his opportunities limited under former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho, particularly in the Premier League. In an interview with Goal, the former MK Dons player was keen to own up to the mistakes of last season.
Dele Alli said: “The only person I blame is myself. I should be performing at a level where it is difficult to not put me in the team or not play me. I don’t blame anyone but myself. Working with [Jose] Mourinho was a great experience and one I learned a lot from.”
Nuno Espirito Santo has now taken charge at Spurs and the Portuguese boss will be keen to give every player a clean slate ahead of the new season. If Alli can recreate his scintillating form from that specific season, then Espirito Santo could have a serious player on his hands. And the former MK Dons player is looking forward to working with the former Wolves boss.
Dele Alli said: “He [Nuno] has done a great job at Wolves. I am looking forward to speaking to him and working with him. He is a great manager and it is exciting times. I want to make this year one of the best I have had. A lot of people have said I need to find the form I was in a few years ago. For me, I don’t even want to get to that, I want to go past that and reach my full potential to be the best player I can be. It has been a tough few years but I have been working hard and analysing what I need to do to get better. I have been training a lot on most days of my holiday. I didn’t feel I needed much rest, so it is just training the whole way through. Everyone is looking for that extra few per cent, so you have to keep up. I am feeling good and the best I have felt in a long time.”
Alli is prone to criticism, and his compatriot Harry Kane came under intense scrutiny after failing to score a goal in England’s group stage campaign at Euro 2020. Since then, Kane has found some form recently in the latter stages of the tournament scoring three goals so far- one against Germany and two against Ukraine. And Alli has enjoyed seeing the 27-year-old prove his worth after being questioned in the earlier stage of the competition.
Dele Alli added: “Harry [Kane] is a true professional, and like me, he knows before anyone else if he deserves that criticism or not. He is so focused to achieve what he wants to do. There’s no surprise he’s scoring. That’s who he is, because nine times out of ten he scores his chance. If he doesn’t score, it doesn’t affect him, because he knows how good he is and everyone knows how good he is. Social media is great because it is so big and gives everyone a chance to have an opinion, but for people like myself and Harry in the limelight, you learn to focus on the criticism you need to listen to which is just from your coaches, team-mates, friends and family. Anyone can say anything, but make it background noise. So for us, we need to have that tunnel vision and focus on what we need to.”
