Dele Alli’s troubled career has hit a new low in recent months, following the dismal failure of his loan move from Everton to Besiktas.
Controversy has dogged the former England international over the past few years, but his temporary switch to the Turkish Super Lig side has almost seemed cursed at times.
From being booed by his own fans to being banished from the first-team by the club’s owner, Alli just hasn’t been able to catch a break in Turkey.
The 26-year-old doesn’t look to have much of a future with his parent club on Merseyside, either, given that they shipped him out on loan after making just 13 Premier League appearances.
It’s been a dramatic fall from grace for a player who represented England in a World Cup semi-final less than five years ago.
Alli began his professional career at MK Dons, where he was given his debut by then-club boss Karl Robinson in 2012.
Robinson managed Alli throughout his time at the club, which ended when the player moved to Tottenham Hotspur in a £5 million deal in February 2015.
Currently out of work after being sacked by Oxford United last month, Robinson recently sat down with talkSPORT to discuss Alli’s decline – and admitted that he had seen signs from a very early stage that could explain the midfielder’s struggles later in his career.
“If you leave him to be him, it’s magical some of the things that he can do with a football. We’ve seen that on the world stage. If you look at the data he’s one of the hardest-working, highest distance-covered players playing,” the 42-year-old Robinson began, before pointing out a character trait that might have hurt Alli’s relationships over the years.
“I think that his persona can sometimes look flippant. He can look laboured, but he always had that.”
Robinson then went on to recall an occasion where he completely ‘lost it’ with Alli in the MK Dons dressing room. You can hear the story for yourself below.
Video: Karl Robinson talks about the time he ‘lost it’ with Dele Alli in the MK Dons dressing room
“I remember pinning him up against the wall at times. I remember him being dragged in a dressing room once by a senior player because he had this look on his face which was a smirk – I lost it with him and a senior player lost it with him as well.
“He wasn’t smirking, it was just him. I remember speaking to him after and he said ‘gaffer, I wasn’t trying to be rude or disrespectful’. When you listen to him you go, ‘Oh okay, I get you a little bit more’.
Despite the various spats that they had while working together, Robinson revealed that he eventually grew to appreciate how ‘kind and caring’ the player was as a person.
“The more you’re with him and the more time you spend with him, the more you understand him and the more he is a kind and caring human being.
“He’s made mistakes. There’s not one of us who haven’t made mistakes in our lives and done things that we regret, but he’s still a human being who still loves football.
“Part of what we were so excited about at MK Dons was the future, so we’re never going to be excited by the future for Dele, I think it’s about finding that moment.
“His next step was Everton and it didn’t work, then it was Besiktas and we’re reading that it isn’t working, but for me, I just want to see him stripped back, playing free and playing as him.”
If Alli can rediscover that freedom, there remains an opportunity for him to get his career back on track.
At just 26, time is still on his side, but getting his next move right is absolutely crucial.
As GIVEMESPORT recently reported, Alli is unlikely to ever play for Everton again as he is only a few games away from triggering a contract clause that would see the Merseysiders have to pay an additional fee to his previous club Tottenham.
Alli’s form from earlier in his career may well convince another club to take a chance on him, although he would almost certainly have to take a drastic pay cut from his £100,000-per-week deal at Goodison Park to make any move happen.
