Spurs midfielder won’t accept Spurs and England being runners up

Tottenham Hotspur have been a permanent fixture in the Premier League top three over the past three seasons, and therefore also Champions League regulars.

The finished as runners-up to Chelsea in the league a couple of seasons ago, as well as pushing Leicester close the year before that.

England have also enjoyed a period of prosperity over the past couple of years, as Gareth Southgate has chosen to build a strong, young team with the aim of winning trophies in the future.

The national side enjoyed their best World Cup finish in over 20 years this summer in Russia, reaching the semi-finals before eventually losing to Croatia.

However, Dele Alli is not one to rest on good performances and finishing as runners-up, as he disres to win trophies for both club and country.

Dele Alli was a big part of Tottenham’s last campaign, as well as a prominent fixture in the England midfield in Russia, despite injury.

The Mirror report that Alli said: “The World Cup was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far. Playing for Tottenham in all of the competitions is a dream come true and playing for England at a World Cup has always been my ambition and then to end up being disappointed we didn’t win it.

“That’s the thing with football. You are never satisfied with what you’ve achieved, you always want more.

“Even after the World Cup, I had a week or so relaxing, taking my mind off it, then after that I was back in the gym, working and making sure I was ready for the first game of the season.

“Rest is important but, as a player, you want to be involved in every game. It felt like I had enough time off to recover both mentally and physically. I know I need to improve, maybe be more consistent and I want to break the 20-goal barrier. Goals are not my main focus, more consistency in my play but a few more goals and assists.

“Every season is tough but last season was my best season for learning. It was a very tough season and I think I had a very good season as well. Stats-wise I think I’ve shown improvement. But I’m 22 and I feel I’ve got a long way before I stop learning. I can carry on improving.

“I learnt a lot about myself as a person, both mentally and tactically. I was not disappointed, I was very happy with last season, it was a great season. But every season you want more, which is why this season has got to be better.”

Tottenham became the first club in history not to sign a single player in the summer transfer window, but Alli ensures this wasn’t a big deal for the players.

“We want to keep fighting together, try to make progress and we’ve been so close recently so we want to take that step further, keep improving.

“Not signing anyone in the transfer window was something people talked about but it didn’t worry me because we know how good we are as a team. We can focus on what we want to do. We can just keep improving as a squad, everyone gets on really well and it’s exciting. We know we can improve, we know we’re not the finished article and that, for me, makes it even more exciting.

“It is important for us to win a trophy. It’s not everything, obviously., but for us, we want to start winning things and we feel it is time. It’s disappointing to come so close in the past and we definitely want to take another step further.

“We’ve just got to keep improving. The fans deserve a trophy and maybe when you win one trophy then others follow, that’s what we’ve got to hope because we feel we are ready for success.

“I can only speak for myself, I can’t speak for other players, I can’t take anything for granted, the character you have to have coming from the lower leagues and for me, playing in the first team from such a young age, I had to fight to prove a point.

“From when I was younger, playing in the streets and knowing that you had to fight for everything because nothing will be given to you in the Premier League, or any league, it’s not easy as a professional footballer because it’s a hard path.

“When you are growing up as kids, everyone dreams of playing against the best teams in the best competitions and the Champions League is that.

“It’s a great opportunity to play against the best players and the best teams in the world. Last season I feel we made our mark, definitely showed improvement and we need to step it up again and go further.

“I feel like we’ve definitely grown as a team with England. I think we’re a better team for the experience, the more time we had together, the more chemistry we had, it was building confidence as a team. But I also think we’re better as players for the experience.”

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