Jermaine Jenas has told BBC Radio 5 Live that Tottenham Hotspur is trying to ‘edge out’ Dele Alli.
The 24-year-old was scoring regularly for Spurs toward the beginning of Mourinho’s spell in North London.
Six of Alli’s eight Premier League goals this season came within two months of the Portuguese replacing Mauricio Pochettino.
He certainly looked like one of Tottenham’s most-improved players of the post-Pochettino era, but his purple patch tailed off.
Alli is now sidelined with a hamstring injury but the club’s former midfielder Jenas has spotted signs that things aren’t all that well between the England international and his coach, by virtue of his decline in form over the past six months or so.
Jenas said: “Dele’s struggled a bit. We’ve not seen that Dele for weeks, months [his form when Mourinho first joined the club]. I get the feeling that he’ll slowly kind of edge him out, from what I’m seeing of him. That’s an indication of things going a little bit sour.”
An in-form Alli is as good as anybody in the Premier League.
The attacking midfielder is a superb goalscoring threat for Tottenham, but Mourinho is a big personality, one who has fallen out with a lot of players during his time in football.
And if Jenas is right, Alli is the latest player to have a bit of a tiff with the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss.
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