England international midfielder Dele Alli is hoping to revive his career at Besiktas, just four years after scoring for his country in a World Cup quarter-final, writes TOM VICTOR.
When England fans watched Dele Alli head Raheem Sterling’s cross beyond Robin Olsen to send the Three Lions into the World Cup semi-finals, few of them would have been able to predict the midfielder’s subsequent fall from grace.
After a brief but largely unproductive few months at Everton, the former MK Dons starlet is on his way to Besiktas on a season-long loan. Just five years have passed since he won the second of his two PFA Young Player of the Year awards, but a return to Gareth Southgate’s England squad looks further away than ever.
It represents a remarkably fast fall from grace for a player who looked at one point as though he could do anything in the game.
At 26 years old, though, there could still be time for him to recover and deliver a second act worthy of the first.
Alli joined Spurs from MK Dons in January 2015, having helped the lower-league side stun Manchester United in the League Cup. A few months back on loan in Milton Keynes suggested he might not have an immediate path to the first team, but that very quickly changed, with manager Mauricio Pochettino feeling like a perfect fit.
“Today, football is about being versatile,” Pochettino said in January 2016. “We need to help a player like Dele Alli improve, not put him in a box.
“He needs to feel free on the pitch and we need to help him improve in different positions because a versatile player, like Pogba, has a big, big value.
“He’s a special player. He is box to box but he has real skill on the ball.
“When he plays like a number 10 he makes the movement like a striker and when he plays number eight or number six he plays like a holding midfielder.”
It was under Pochettino that Alli played his best club football, and a lot of this can be put down to the manager understanding how to get the most out of his talents. Spurs’ 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons were built on the midfielder often playing close to Harry Kane, being trusted to deliver as a goalscorer as well as linking things up in the middle.
For a while, Gareth Southgate was able to get the same results at international level. While England’s conservative set-up at major tournaments didn’t always make for the most incisive football, one thing it did do was allow those in advanced roles to know their responsibilities.
We saw his quality from the get-go at senior level, with big performances in games against France and Germany. However, considering the big part he played in Russia in 2018, it’s easy to forget his place didn’t look that secure before the tournament.