Graham Roberts has leaped to the defence of Dele Alli following the string of diving claims being aimed at the England midfielder.
Dele has of course come under fire in recent weeks for going down “easy” to win penalties and Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and a host of other pundits have slammed the 21-year-old for simulating however Spurs legend Roberts believes they have been wrong to do so and he believes Alli is receiving too much criticism and people should lay off him.
Roberts told The Daily Mail: “Once the bandwagon gets going it’s hard to stop but I will try because this has gone too far with Dele Alli.
“It’s unfair to keep digging him out for diving and it is putting the referees under pressure.”
He added: “It’s wrong for people to keep digging out Dele Alli. There’s a lot of hatred towards Tottenham and their players. A lot of it comes down to jealousy.
“Dele is a fantastic player. He’s going to the very top and some people think they need to bring him down to earth. We seem to enjoy knocking our best players in England, I don’t know why.
Robbo went on to say “Let’s give the boy a chance. He’s a superstar. He can be unplayable when he’s at his best.”
The article goes on to say that Roberts says the likes of Lineker and Shearer have been ‘ridiculous’ and hypocritical with their scrutiny.
He added: “I retweeted a clip of Gary Lineker going down to win a penalty for England in the World Cup against Cameroon.Gary replied to say he had a gash on his leg where the defender hit him but I think that was more likely to have been the defender taking revenge later on. I played against Gary many times and I’m sure he dived more than once.
Roberts added: “I don’t know about Alan Shearer because his game was more about strength and power.They were both fantastic players but to keep coming out and saying Dele dives is ridiculous.”
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