Jamie Redknapp has admitted that a player of Dele Alli’s quality is too good to have played as little as he has this season, suggesting that the midfielder either has not shown enough appetite in training or has an issue with Jose Mourinho.
Dele has been a fringe figure for the vast majority of the campaign so far, struggling to get minutes in the Premier League.
However, after the midfielder’s proposed move to Paris Saint-Germain failed to materialise in January, Jose Mourinho admitted that the 24-year-old can be an important player for the side if he is at his best.
The Spurs boss has stayed true to his word, handing the England international plenty of minutes since he returned from his injury.
Despite Alli producing a Man of the Match performance in Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Wolfsberger last Wednesday, Mourinho decided to leave him on the bench for the clash against Burnley on Sunday but the midfielder did get 25 minutes under his belt after replacing Lucas Moura midway into the second half.
Redknapp admitted that he was baffled when Alli was left out of the matchday squad by Mourinho on a few occasions earlier in the season.
The former Tottenham midfielder told Sky Sports’ Super Sunday (28/2) on the Premier League channel: “We do forget, we forget sometimes how good players are when they have a little bit of time off. But this is a player, the rate of goals he scored is just out of this world.
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“But things haven’t worked out since Jose’s come to the club. I don’t believe a player of this quality cannot even be getting on the bench sometimes. It just doesn’t make any sense.
“If you think about how they are struggling, at the moment. It would be great to introduce someone like him.
“But there has to be two reasons for that, 1) he’s not doing enough in training. Not showing the manager enough appetite or desire. Secondly, there is some kind of problem between him and the manager.”
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Mourinho announced in his first press conference as Tottenham boss last season that one of the things he learned from his experiences at Manchester United was that sometimes one has to work well with people they do not like.
The Spurs boss has certainly proven with his treatment of Ndombele that he is willing to put egos to one side as long as a player can be an asset to the team. So there is no reason to think Alli cannot establish himself in the starting eleven irrespective of what his personal relationship with Jose is like.
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