Spurs legend Teddy Sheringham has been offering personal insight into England’s rising talent Dele Alli, who the 51 year old has tipped for an ‘outstanding’ career with Tottenham.
In 2015, Spurs confirmed the signing of the then 19 year old Dele Alli, who went on to earn a regular spot in the first team, scoring 10 goals and providing 11 assists in all competitions in his debut season.
Last season, Alli took the next step, scoring 23 goals and chipping in with a further 8 assists, in a campaign in which the 21 year old won PFA Young Player of the Year Award for the second successive season.
Former Spurs striker Teddy Sheringham heaped the praise on Dele in an interview uploaded on the Tottenham Hotspur official club website. He said:
“For someone still so young, he’s been very good. A lot of people forget what it was like to be 21. I know from my point of view, I was still learning my trade and trying to understand what I could and couldn’t do on a football pitch at that age.”
“He’s doing that, but he’s doing it at the top level and producing outstanding results week in, week out, so for me, he can only get better.”
“I think the next four or five years will be outstanding years for Dele because he’s really grasped what he can and can’t do very quickly and he’s performing regularly.”
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Sheringham then went on to explain the similarities between himself and his partnership with fellow former Spur Darren Anderton, and the team-work between Dele Alli and Tottenham talisman Harry Kane.
“I just think every now and again you get a relationship with a particular player,” He added. “It doesn’t come around very often in your career but sometimes you just click with someone, like I had the understanding with Darren Anderton.”
“You enjoy playing, you know what people want to do, what they’ll try to do and I think that’s what Harry and Dele have got.”
“They just look like they understand each other and know instinctively where they’d like the ball to be passed to.”
“You can talk to each other on a football pitch. Obviously you can’t always, but it’s not always about word of mouth, it might just be eye contact or maybe even putting a hand up to say that you want it right or left.”
“Sometimes you know when someone’s going to get their head up and look at you to be able to give them that signal. Darren used to do it from corners and I’d just give him a little signal.”
Sheringham clearly shares in our high hopes for Dele Alli and Harry Kane, who still both have their entire careers ahead of them.
As a final comment, Sheringham stated:
“You just get an understanding that is uncanny and long may it continue for Tottenham. It’s just a lovely combination to watch.”
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