Hugo Lloris has revealed that he wants to see Dele Alli start to enjoy his football again and admits he needed a change of scenery from Tottenham to achieve that.
Alli departed Spurs after seven years on the final day of the January transfer window, joining Everton to become one of Frank Lampard’s first signings (BBC Sport).
Despite starting prominently earlier this season under Nuno Espirito Santo, the 25-year-old fell down the pecking order under Antonio Conte and failed to recover any sort of form.
The switch to Merseyside will hopefully be a fresh start in the career of Alli, who looks a shadow of the player that took the Premier League by storm just a handful of years ago.
Lloris, who was the midfielder’s teammate for over six seasons, has reflected on the positive time spent with Alli in N17 but admits a change was needed for him to try and regain his happiness.
He told The Times: “I really like Dele. We had some great times at Spurs but also it’s important that players find new challenges.
“Sometimes the new challenge is not at the same place. Dele has to go to another place but the most important thing is I want to see Dele with a smile.
“I wanted Dele to enjoy football and I know it was a bit complicated the last two years for him, a lot of inconsistency in terms of games played, but that’s part of the career. It’s never easier for anyone, even the best players in the world have some up and downs.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The departure of Alli was coming and even though it was the right time, it was still a difficult one to see given how many amazing moments he had in a Spurs shirt. Lloris is right, though, that he needed a change to try and get himself back on track and in a better state on a football and emotional level.