The most pleasing thing for anyone who loves Dele Alli and was watching him on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football was to hear that he feels that he can see “the light at the end of the tunnel” after a long time out injured. The most surprising thing, perhaps, was that his target is to play at the 2026 World Cup.
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This was Dele’s first major media appearance since his famous The Overlap interview with Gary Neville, which was released in July last year. That was when Dele told the world about the anguish he was facing, the childhood trauma and addiction issues which had led to him going into therapy. It was impossible not to be moved by Dele’s honesty and bravery in almost unimaginable circumstances.
From a football perspective, the last year for Dele has been bad. He has not played since February 2023, his last game during a brief loan spell at Besiktas in Turkey. Since then, he has been out with an injury, working hard to get fit again in the hope of being available for Sean Dyche’s Everton.
But here, over the course of Sky’s four-and-a-half-hour show on either side of Chelsea versus Everton, he talked in great detail and with growing confidence about his whole career — from MK Dons to Spurs to Everton, to his last difficult year out with injury. He revealed towards the end of the show he has found it difficult to watch football over the past eight months because of his frustration at his long-term absence.
While it has been a frustrating time on the pitch — Dele said he has “really had to learn what patience is”, having never had a long-term injury before — he has gone through this period as a new man.
Those who know Dele all say he is finally in a good place again mentally, feeling better than he has done for a long time. Dele himself said that has given him the tools to get through this difficult time. He talked a lot about his “journey”, about learning and growing, and how he is “grateful” that he went through what he did last year given what has happened since.
All of this raises the question of what Dele will do when he does recover from this long-term injury. He is coming into the final months of his Everton contract, which expires this summer. He has been doing rehab work at Everton and he spoke very warmly about the club and Dyche. (It was slightly awkward that he had to pundit on such a disastrous Everton performance, but he handled it diplomatically.) The fans will always love him for helping to save them from relegation under Frank Lampard in May 2022 and he received plenty of support after the Neville interview last summer.
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The big question is what Dele will do when he is a free agent at the end of the season. The challenge will be to find a club where he feels comfortable and supported to enjoy playing his football again. He said he wants to stay in the Premier League but did not want to go into details while he is still contracted to Everton. He spoke confidently about knowing what his level is as a player and he revealed his only real long-term target right now is playing for England at the 2026 World Cup.
“I have a reminder on my phone. 11 o’clock every day: World Cup 2026. That is my aim. People will say, ‘He hasn’t played in a year’. I don’t care. I know what my level is.
“The only target I have is the World Cup. I’m injured right now. I’m signed to Everton. My mindset is to take it day by day, make sure my injury heals right and that I am in the best possible condition for the summer. I don’t want to rush it.”
"You know you can set reminders on your phone? I have a reminder at 11 o'clock everyday, World Cup 2026"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 15, 2024
Dele shares his goals for the future and where he wants to be as a professional footballer 🥰 pic.twitter.com/RzZA1wBFY9
It would be a huge turnaround for Dele to make it into the squad for the next World Cup, when he will be 30 years old. He has not played for England for almost five years now, his last appearance coming in the Nations League finals in Portugal in June 2019. The England team has changed an awful lot since then, as many of the players who were there in Russia for Gareth Southgate’s first World Cup have been phased out. But Dele spoke with real conviction about trying to make it happen. And if he gets his next move right, there is no reason he cannot do it.
What has been very clear recently is how loved Dele is by those who know him best, especially those who played alongside him during his peak years with Tottenham. There was an outpouring of support for Dele after his The Overlap interview went live, but the feelings that Dele inspires in people are as strong as ever. When Mauricio Pochettino was interviewed before the game, he looked delighted to speak to Dele again.
“What a player, oh my goodness,” Pochettino said, puffing his cheeks out in the way he does when he is truly impressed.
"What a player, oh my goodness! So happy to see you!" 😊
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 15, 2024
Poch 🤝 Dele pic.twitter.com/JpvhUr9eJa
Ben Davies was at Spurs for Dele’s whole time there and in an interview with ESPN last month, he spoke incredibly warmly about Dele. With a huge smile on his face, Davies talked about how lively Dele was in training, trying skills, snapping into tackles, making the point that one of Dele’s great strengths was treating every opposition the same — which is how he could go from playing for MK Dons in League One to dominating Real Madrid in the Champions League just two years later.
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Davies also expressed his own hope for what Dele might do next: rediscovering that midfield bite he had at the start of his career, forgetting about getting goals and assists and returning to the middle of the pitch. “Being that tough-tackling hungry young kid who is winning the ball,” as Davies put it.
(Remember that this is what Nuno Espirito Santo tried to do during his brief Spurs tenure, moving Dele into the midfield in his 4-3-3, giving him a job that made the most of his running power without the ball rather than his creativity with it. Maybe history will eventually prove Nuno right.)
Earlier this month, I interviewed Eric Dier, another player who was at Tottenham throughout Dele’s time there and another person who is one of Dele’s closest friends. I asked Dier about Dele and he was just as enthusiastic as Davies about his hopes that Dele would get playing again, snapping into tackles like he used to. And Dier was also upbeat about Dele’s mental state, having seen his close friend come through some very difficult times recently.
“Obviously he’s been injured and he’s trying to recover from that,” Dier said. “I think he’s in a very good place. He’s just trying to recover from his injury as best he can. I think it’s been a very, very tough time for him not to be able to play. And he’s another person who people probably think is a lot older than he is. He’s still very young, still got a lot of football ahead of him.
“I think the biggest thing for him is just about trying to get fit and healthy and getting himself in a position to be competitive again. That’s his main focus right now. When he does that, hopefully we can see him playing football again, enjoying himself again.”
Dier and Dele played together at Spurs for more than six years. In Dele’s Spurs debut, a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford in August 2015, he came on for Dier. Dele’s first start, at Sunderland one month later, was alongside Dier in midfield. Dele’s last league appearance for Spurs, in December 2021, was alongside Dier, too. The two men also played for England together, both in the squad for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup. (On Monday Night Football, they showed Dele’s famous two goals at Stamford Bridge in the 3-1 win in April 2018, the first of which came from Dele running onto Dier’s 50-yard pass.)
Dier could not have been more positive or heartfelt about what it would mean to him to see Dele back playing again. “It would mean the world to me to see him just enjoying his football again,” Dier said. “I can watch Dele play for two minutes and I’ll know if he’s enjoying his football or not. It’s very easy to see. I hope, I hope, I hope that we will be able to see that very soon.
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“As I said, it’s just a matter of him working hard and recovering from his injury. And getting back into the best shape possible to be able to perform and play competitive football again. I am sure he’s going to.”
When asked about Davies’ suggestion that Dele might turn back into a tough-tackling midfielder, Dier smiles at the knowledge that there are parts of his game that cannot be repressed.
“That’s how I know Dele is enjoying his football,” Dier says. “When I see a bit of a naughty tackle, irritating someone, and running all over the place. When he lets his natural instincts take control, he is in a fantastic place.” (Dele gave some fascinating insights into this aspect of his personality at the end of last night’s MNF show, talking about how his cheekiness did not always go down so well with the senior players at MK Dons when he first broke through there.)
"That little bit of cheekiness, I think you need to have it"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 15, 2024
Dele reflects back on his career at MK Dons and the challenges he faced making it to first-team football ⚽ pic.twitter.com/92JYePYSWl
Like everyone close to Dele, Dier hopes he can move on positively with his life now that he has confronted his trauma.
“I’m speculating a little, but I’m guessing it’s a big weight off his shoulders,” Dier told me. “He’s obviously been carrying a lot from his life and he’s gone through a lot. It’s a shame that he got injured because he’s come out on the other side and he’s got an injury. He’s in a great place, where it’s about trying to get fit and enjoy his football again. Hopefully, he continues to take care of himself; I think he’s doing that.”
Dele spoke last night about using the past few years as a “learning tool” for his comeback.
“With the process I went through in the summer, it’s almost like that got me ready for this. Even in the toughest times during this, I can’t lie and say it’s been all easy and I’ve been happy the whole time — there have been some dark days during this. But I’ve been able to process those days and allow myself to experience that fear and channel it into the right things.
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“It’s done nothing but made me want to get back to the top more and so I’m like, ‘OK, I just need to take a breath sometimes and relax and work towards what my end goal is for the next few years and use this as a learning tool for me’.
“I think it’s just exciting. A lot of players might panic about being out of contract in the summer and I’ve had an injury for a year and a half, but this is a great opportunity for me to show myself and what an amazing story it has been. And what it is going to continue to be.
“Going through this makes when I do get back to the top even better. I just want to get there.”
