The sight of a prone Dele Alli looking up to see a yellow card being brandished in his direction for simulation at Goodison Park was the perfect metaphor for a career which has nosedived badly. Tottenham’s Alli has been caught out before throwing himself off the high board with tuck and pike but back in the day the dark antics were mixed with flashing bursts of brilliance. On Wednesday evening his substitute cameo in Spurs’ crazy FA Cup exit featured nothing of positive note.
In a madcap game of wide-open spaces in which every attack-minded player worth his salt added to their highlights reel, Alli found cul-de-sacs instead. PSG? OMG more like it.
This, remember, was arguably England’s player of the 2018 World Cup, someone who is still only 24. Yet, cast out in the shadows, he is in danger of becoming a lost talent.
The 14 minutes plus extra time he was given by Jose Mourinho off the bench at Everton served only to underline how far off the pace he has fallen.
To see Alli at all on a football pitch was a rare treat. He has started just one Premier League game all season.
With the move he craved to Paris Saint-Germain and his old boss Mauricio Pochettino having collapsed, Alli faces more misery under a manager who does not trust him.
The Amazon documentary, which saw Mourinho questioning Alli’s lifestyle and his training, was a window into a relationship destined for divorce. But with the January transfer window having come and gone, both parties remain entwined.
Alli’s contract at Spurs runs until 2024. Is he to become the next Danny Rose? It would be a terrible waste if that were to be the case. At his best there is the sort of player who can elevate a football match to a higher plain.
There is a cheeky chic about Alli which is so easy on the eye. The swivelling volley against Crystal Palace as a teenager which announced him to a wider world came off the top shelf of the football library’s restricted section.
He has magic in his boots with his array of flicks and tricks. Sadly, they have become predominantly training ground entertainment. A start for Spurs is a stretch; as for England, that has disappeared over the hill. Phil Foden, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish and James Madison have all overtaken him as attacking midfielders.
Alli’s last involvement with the national team was 20 months ago against Switzerland in the Nations League third-place play-off. That was also Jesse Lingard’s last game for England.
There are parallels in their subsequent drift into the backwaters at their clubs but where Lingard has engineered the perfect reboot move with his loan to West Ham – two goals on his debut against Aston Villa last week was the ideal start – Alli remains stuck in his Spurs’ rut.
It was exactly the sort of second-impact danger zone that would not be possible if the game had gone down the road of temporary subs.
There is much more chance West Ham’s medics would have removed Diop immediately knowing they could make a more considered assessment with 15 minutes – plus the half time break – at their disposal.
Ryan Fredericks could still have come on but could have gone off again if a more thorough concussion test had been passed by Diop.
It’s not too late to think again on this.
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Relocating Liverpool’s Champions League tie next week so Jurgen Klopp’s side head for Budapest rather than Leipzig means the tie can still go ahead – and over two legs as originally planned.
UEFA will be delighted no doubt but hasn’t a trick been missed here?
With Germany unwilling to accept UK sports teams for the time being – even those managed by Germans – because of our pesky variant it would have made more sense, both in Covid terms and competitively, to have made the Budapest match winner takes all.
As well as cutting down on the travel, one-legged ties would prevent the unfairness of one team enjoying home advantage and the other not.
Manchester City the following week and Chelsea are in the same position with away legs on neutral grounds. Likewise in the Europa League with Manchester United and Arsenal.
At a time when the Premier League and other leagues across the continent are stretched beyond breaking point because of the compressed season this was a chance to trim a fixture and create a tiny piece of breathing space.
A chance missed.