The Tragic Tale Of Dele Alli 

As sad is it is to see his potential be wasted, Dele Alli did not fail. He came from a rough background and was known to have anger issues. His aggression massively helped in his playing career. But as he made more money and his life improved, that same aggression and drive that helped him so much, began to fade. I would have loved to see him realise his potential, but life isn't all about football, and I'm happy to see that he has massively improved his life and the lives of his loved ones.

As an Evertonian, I was very optimistic when Frank brought him in, safe to say the optimism died very quickly. His performance against Palace in the game that kept us up was immense however, and will always be thankful for that 🙏🏼

The recent Dele Alli interview gave me a new perspective on the importance of hearing the other side rather than jumping to conclusions

My mate predicted this downfall years ago when Dele was still on the rise at Spurs. He doesn’t love football, he’s got the natural talent but just doesn’t give enough of a damn about the game and what it takes to be great. There’s many athletes all over the world who make the top level and play there but never fulfil their talent, they don’t love the game enough to sacrifice and work hard. It’s just a job to them. Just cos you’re a pro athletes doesn’t mean you’re exempt of not enjoying/loving your job like the rest of us.

Incredible fall, mourinho called it

I’m from Michigan didn’t get into football until I randomly got FIFA 17. I had Dele Alls PFA card and he became my favorite player in real life Every year I have supported spurs since and will continue until I croak. Thank you Dele from a Nigerian British descent kid living in the USA you brought the joy of football to at least me.

as a spurs fan, this genuinely makes me sad. He could've been a club legend!

I think in his head he has completed football. His life is a rags-to-riches story. Born in to a poor family, Dad left a week after he was born, grew up in a rough area of Milton Keynes, playing street football with older kids learning to hold his own, then played for a local club, was spotted by MK Dons, adopted by the family of one of his team mates, continued to improve, signed by Spurs, hits the big time thanks to some wonder performances, and eventually debuts for England. He's literally progressed all the way up the ladder from nothing and ticked every football box. His talent got him to the top and he's like "football? completed it mate." Now the motivation is gone. He has peaked and checked-out. He has made his money, he has what he wants in life. He is done with football. As a supporter it's s shame, but it's his life.

I think the issue with player like dele is, the modern footballer doesn't seem to care and have the passion, its more about just being a job for them.

He literally maxed out on his peak between 2015-19. Obviously similar players adapt and change position slightly, but might drop to a mid-table team (think Andros Townsend or Wilfried Zaha). The problem with Dele is he's not only lost his appetite for football, but maybe life in general. There's no life or passion in his eyes. There's more than meets the eye tbh.

I love how you spent a good share of this video actually exploring the possible reasons of his download, unlike similar titled videos that end up being just a biography.

Even as an arsenal fan, it’s quite sad to see Dele’s fall from grace especially as such an immense talent that he was. Hopefully he gets a Granit Xhaka-esque kinda revival in his career.

He always reminded me of Thomas Müller the way he doesn't seem to have a natural position or any notable strengths but still managed to score and assist loads.

Mourinho believed in Dele more than he believed in any other player. Dier was in a similar rut to Dele's but look at their currect path ? Dele didn't listen

As a Besiktas fan I hope Dele improves I still have a lot of hope for him 😢

Funnily enough during a player career mode I playing on FIFA 23, I signed for Borussia Monchengladbach in my second season with an Argentine LW. When I came to the club it was all normal, and since I didn't know that much about the club, I only recognized Sommer from the players. Fast forward to my debut, where I end up getting an assist, only to realize that Dele Alli was the one who I assisted to. The overwhelming confusion after seeing Dele Alli randomly playing in Borussia Monchengladbach was very funny. Now one season after, we have won the german cup and league, and we have 2 new signings- Mac Allister and Brobbey from Ajax. Dele Alli continue to be in the starting 11, and continues to do good. After this save, I can't do anything but feel bad for what is happening to him irl.

I'm a Beşiktaş fan. I was so happy when he came to our club this season, since I knew him from Tottenham and he was great there. Sad to see his decline. But the season is not over yet, I hope he gets to his form back, at least half of it.

Pain is the word I would use. I watched him all the way from his days at MK Dons as I am a fan of the dons. And to see him like he is now breaks my heart

Well. Goes to show we really don't know when we think we know.

Soo sad to see such a player down on his luck. Hope he bounces back. 🙏

I mean he looked alright at Everton’s last couple of games he looked more motivated and when Everton were 2-0 down dele came on and changed the game and let’s not forget that cross to richarlisons goal against leister that made it 1-1 dele alli has not been given a fair chance

I feel like the same could happen with Grealish, When he was at Villa he was loved by everyone and Very Close with Dean Smith who built the club around jack and made him our captain. Ever since he joined City he hasn’t been the same under pep and has said he feels like he can’t be himself on the pitch whereas at villa we watched him at his best full of confidence. Like what Liam said in the video some players perform better if there more comfortable in the environment that they’re in. Great video btw

As a Spurs fan I really hope he turns it around. He needs that love and nurture - like a father figure type of person. I'll always stand behind him and hope he can hit his strude again and look back at all of this as a lesson he learns from.

I don't think his heart is in it anymore

I've bin watching your fifa rant videos for years now and i can say this new documentary style fits your style very well it can also help witn your channel growth, keep it up i enjoyed that, and i sub to a lot of football documentary channel and can say you on par with some of the best out there.

Love the video and videos. Just started watching and great videos. Even when I am a "noob" of the topic you explain it so well that I understand what you are talking about.

TBH I think his early clubs massaged his ego too much, so when Morinho was in charge that stopped and sadly Deli Alli was thrown to the wolves. Instead of facing real life he found it was easier to enter an alternative reality in PC games. He found it was too hard to face the critics so he simply closed down. Some players turn to drugs, booze, prostitutes, etc, but still keep a hold on their soccer career. I hope Deli is able to comeback before the final door is shut in his face.

I feel like you should delete the video

As a spurs fan I loved dele its such a shame whats happening to him 😭

One big issue I think that precipitated the fall of Alli, even before the hamstring injuries, was how the British media hyped him up as the greatest thing ever. He did BT sport ads where they tried to make out he was already the best player in football and could be successful in anything he tried his hand at... stuff like that has a massive impact and really screws with a young person's head.

As an toffee I feel bad how everything went wrong after a sacking of a manager quite sad innit

As Harry Redknapp said, turning up at Goodison in a Rolls Royce, come on! If I was him, I would of stayed grounded and gone back to basics and proved others wrong.

Total heartbreak that Dele was never able to get back to his best as a Spurs fan - absolutely love the guy

6:50 i persoanlly disagree. After Jose came in, Dele was our best performing player for s good few weeks, consistently getting onto the scoresheet, creating chances, etc.

Dele Alli didn't play as a CAM or second striker at MK Dons, he played as a central midfielder alongside Darren Potter in a 4231 with Ben Reeves playing as a second striker - Dele got given license to go forward a lot because Potter held, but generally speaking they were the glue of the midfield that allowed the attacking players to flourish more

I legit don’t understand why the English claim their young players are prolific. I never considered Dele Ali as a world class player. He had a lot of work to do.

What's The Main Problem To Dele Alli's Fall? Do You Think Dele Alli Will Pick Up Form Again?

I would genuinely be concerned about his emotional well-being.

As an Arsenal fan it shouldn't pain me as much as it does to see the fall of Dele. He is the kind of guy that has dislikeable traits when he is playing for the opposition team but when he's on your side you kind of love them for it. Seeing too much blame at Mourinho, the fall had already started at this point and has continued at a struggling Everton side. Dele has too much talent to just disappear off into the wilderness and it just seems to be his attitude holding him back. Sounds like he is a 'bad trainer' but could still be a talented 'Shadow Striker' which is his best position and is still a position that is alive and kicking. His very brief loan stint is still way too early to be called a failure; fair play he put himself out there and went on loan to a foreign league. We've seen a number of players over the years just sit out big contracts in the Prem with no interest in playing; clearly he still wants to play football. The saying 'earn the right to play' normally refers to playing in a match but sounds like Dele needs to apply it to training. He is only 26 and despite the fact most of his career was playing for my teams fiercest rival I hope he can turn things around, he has the time and talent to do it.

great video, really enjoyed the format

Felix sticking with the one edible Scandinavian dish for 20 mins straightforward

I like these knew tragic tales video series, I hope they still keep coming!

I think as a kid he kinda “had to play good” to establish himself as a player but as he got older he must’ve just lost the drive that he had when he was younger once he had all the money and rep he lost motiv and here we are now…

That goal for Spurs in his first prem season will be remembered (coming from a Liverpool fan)

Excellent review, thanks.

Liam has a good take on this, dele doesn’t have a manager who believes in him to do his best, his career completely changed when poch left spurs and he became too lazy, I’m hoping he could mark a comeback like his former teammate eriksen

Out of all the managers after Poch. Mourinho is the only one who gave Dele the most chances. But go on, painting Mourinho as the bad guy gets you more popular

From shining in League One to jumping to the Premiere and becoming the captain of Tottenham Hotspurs to bench warmer at Besiktas. Gotta say, he needs a sports psychologist.

You nailed it on the head when you addressed that man-management aspect mate. I had a really good coach when I was 14-17 and I always remember him saying "you need to know the difference between a player who needs an arm around the shoulder and a player who needs a kick up the arse."

Still remember his goal againts chelsea at Stamford Bridge. His first touch and finishing after receive a long ball from Vertongan i think

As a spurs fan i wanna cry about this. he was a legend for us really he was alwas a good player but he just lost focus after he got that big wage increase in 2018. money was his downfall and fortnite. If he kept his form up id say he would be a club legend 100%

I saw him live at White Hart Lane against Wycombe Wanderers and he looked like a ballerina out there. Not seen many games live but always remember how he stood out. Very naturally talented.

Dele has a similiar playstyle and position of Thomas Müller but does 5% of the work that Müller does... this type of player has to be extremely tactically intelligent to find space.. they don't have massive pace or dribbling ability but drifts in and out of space.

Cant lie the last time I heard about Alli was when he was doing Fortnite streams with Kane back during 2020 COVID Lockdown lol

Nicely done commentary, thank you.

Its sad to see him like this but I think its partly Dele's fault as he knows what he is doing and he needs to improve asap. He reminds me of Ravel Morrison a player with a lots of potential but doesn't uses it

I would say either head to the MLS or wild shoutout here, go back to MK Dons for a short spell. Might help to go back before moving forwards.

For the right price I would take him at Newcastle. The way we’ve been able to transform players that haven’t performed well under different people I.e Joelinton under Bruce or any1 under Bruce that is.. would be an interesting challenge with a potential good return if done right which I think Eddie Howe could definitely do. If he was to put the effort in he would get all the appreciation he needs from the fans. He’s clearly got the talent as seen in his previous seasons so it’s just a case of finding the right key to unlock that talent again.

Absolutely stellar video, could u possibly cover Jack Grealish? Love the content man ❤

It's just sad and a shame to see a talented player like him wasting his days. I think he needs to get help to keep himself motivated to play again. Next, I think he should reinvent himself as a box-to-box midfielder rather than a no. 10 or a shadow striker. He's still young, I am sure he's intelligent enough to change his position.

There’s only one man that can save dele and that is pochettino had dele got that move to psg. 2 years ago I am convinced things would be very different as I feel poch would’ve had a similar convo with him as Jose but coming out of pochs mouth dele would respect it much more and want to do his best for him. You never know in football, if poch gets his old job back in the summer dele may follow suit and spurs fans may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome but he has definitely got to work harder and realise his mistakes❤ I still think Jose drained out any confidence dele had though and he handled the situation terribly

Yooooo nice thumbnail concept bro, although I thought I’d seen it before somewhere…..

Ozil had something similar where under mourihno , he felt like he couldn’t perform as well as when he was in arsenal under weniger because Jose has such a harsh and discouraging way of managing his players

The hype around him was bigger than his talent. There you go.

I think he got a taste of getting a fat pay cheque while being at home recovering from his injury and enjoyed that more than having to actually work hard. Got lazy and stopped trying in training which in turns gives the managers no faith to use him.

He had the raw talent for sure. Reminded me of Gazza in his first few seasons at Spurs and he could have gone to the very top in football. It's quite a sad waste really.

Great video mate, really well pjt together and flows well. Good stuff you talented little bastard

Yeah you’ve got the stats there but he changed the game for Everton (us) against palace and kept us up. You forgot to mention the robbery where he was tied up and beaten

I think he's battling something we can't necessarily see... Mental health is a big thing, especially in professional sports.

Something went wrong with Dele by the 19/20 season at Spurs…while Poch was still there. It partly coincided with a very poor PL run from Jan20 until the Poch sacking. Why? Was is a combination of fitness issues and associated mental challenges? We surely don’t know, and it’s truly sad to see his continued slide at Everton and Besiktas.

Failure written all over his face, he's paying for ignoring Mourinho

His bad injury a few years ago has ruined him unfortunately, it’s happened many times to many players over the years, lose 10% of pace or playing with some pain makes an enormous difference

Ozil, Isco, Alli and a ton of old fashioned #10s all went out of fashion in the European game at around the same time lol, it can't be only because of their personalities can it? Creative players over the last decade have kinda dispersed into 2 main groups: the ones with pace and dribbling skill have become pseudo-wingers who can cut in and create chances for the team, with the fullbacks doing what wingers used to do. that's what happened to your christian eriksens and neymars. the ones without pace but who can run their socks and press for a full 90 minutes/control the game dropped deeper and became more cm than cam - kevin de bruyne, modric and bruno fernandes are all almsot completely different players but occupy a central role and are the main creators for their teams. alli, ozil and isco all fit neither of those archetypes. they're either really good at playing the killer pass or at playing the second striker, but their positions are simply not viable in the current euro football meta. so no, its not fortnite or celebrity or whatever that ruined dele's career, football simply evolved and left him behind, and he couldn't/didn't want to change his game along with it. its simple, really. players like lampard and scholes reinvented themselves to be good for 15+ years. these guys should have done something similar.

Arsenal fan here. But it’s clear from this vid that it wasn’t all his fault which kinda makes you feel for him.

his career arc literally went form a league one player to a "world beater" potential and back to a league one player again

As a spurs fan, this hurts love him to bits and the thing is we need him like spurs need a CAM rn

I do believe that he's exhausted from pro football at the top flight level. To be honest, it is very very tough to be the top 1% of the top 1% of all the pro players in the world. He definitely has done very well for himself at a young age. Finances are definitely now not a problem for him and it is unfortunate that his motivation levels are no longer there. This could be a reason for the fact that he played primarily for the financial requirements. Now that it is solved and he's contented, there's no more motivation left for him as he's not like the other footballers that really love the sport with all their heart. Dele has probably other things in mind and this is the reason why he no longer is able to sustain that momentum to improve or even maintain that standard. I don't foresee him improving anymore or making a comeback but rather fade out. Instead, Dele should focus on using his wealth to start businesses and new ventures while he's still relevant in terms of fame. If he has to make that shift for further success, perhaps the earlier the better for him to finish his career by 30 and then quickly move on to what he is truly passionate about.

Dele needs psychological help, as it is clear that footballing ability is not the issue here. Apparently he doesn't have a relationship with either of his parents, which probably doesn't help either.

Great video! Would love to see more of these among English players. Fancy doing one about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?

Mourinho: youre lazy in training Dele: hehe

I was playing Fifa when I realized that Dele Alli wasn't on the england team. This is a real downfall for him

Only really remember Delle Allí because of the hand challenge he made a few years ago. Sad to see him lose relevance.

It's crazy that in 2018 he scored one of the goals in our quarter final win over Sweden at World Cup and flash forward now he is getting subbed off for Beskitas and booed.

Saw him live in Russia at the World Cup. Great goal against Sweden. I hope he can recover some form.

Dele Alli just looks like he needs a hug to be honest. The 'arm round the shoulder'. A manager that doesn't call him out publicly, but tells him privately he's a great player and an important part of the team, and a set of supporters that love and embrace him. I honestly think he can be a top player still, and would love to see him, find his place and find his club. He could still win league titles and trophies, maybe not in the EPL, La Liga or Serie A. But certainly in almost any other league in world football, and be one of the stars of that league. Maybe in time, Besiktas can be that club. Personally I would absolutely love to see that Dele Alli redemption arc.

As a F1 fan, when i saw the thumbnail i taught Perspective started doing football videos lol.

Ferguson was a great man manager. He could tell if you needed a cuddle or a kicking. Miller at Aberdeen hardly trained but on the day there was no one better. He was the captain the ref and centre half.

At least give pers some credit for the thumbnail style

It's at the stage now where it feels like he needs professional help. There's something not right with the lad's head and it's a shame because back in the day, he was immense!

I saw Dele start his career at MK in 2014-15 season and was there throughout the breakthrough season, had Grigg and Afobe up top. Alli was the best player I saw play at stadium:MK for Dons. Such a shame to see how it’s turning out for him!

what a shame it would be if he doesnt succeed.. I saw so much talent in him at Spurs.. in the few games he played really well.. then he just didnt seem to be much a part of play from then on...edit.. i posted before watching.. and you pinpointed the exact moment I saw it change as well.. the All or Nothing really brought it to light. and be basically was embarrassed by Mourinho, and as a young man who was already not that confident, this was a huge blow to his ego, and therefore his game experience. Hence why he likely heavily turned to Fortnite/games.. No one can tell him to do more or less, aside from teammates in the game of course, but that is completely different. A coach as big as Jose would have to mentally impact you if he rides you like that., anyway, hope he turns it all around and becomes the best player he can be.

Finally, a creator who has linked Dele's decline to his obvious video game addiction 👏

I miss Dele Alli one of my favorite England players :( especially 2018 World Cup I hope he can still regain his form.

As a spurs fan it breaks my heart but from my point of view it all went down hill when poach left no father figure no more development he was just expected to be world class also he never as I’ve seen him play love for 2 and half years never put in 100% effort he is so talented it’s unbelievable he’s more talking then foden and Mount etc but his work rate is awful and it breaks my heart he needs to go to a championship club to rebuild or go mls an easy league and make a lot of money

i don’t know that you can call it a tragic tale, when he’s the cause for his downfall

The thing is, a lot of this happens to English overhyped players. Watch Bellingham fumble under expectations next. Just like Sancho did.

Happens a lot in football youngsters come through super talented then burnt out just as quickly as they burst onto the scene. Takes a very special mentality to maintain

You should have put Deli Ali’s life story in this him growing up etc would have made it better

It's like what Samuel Eto'o said to Eden Hazard "This is football. If you don't train, we'll forget about you in two years"

You are doing perspective style from F1 videos in football. The thumbnails!