Tim Sherwood thinks Dele Alli wouldn’t have made it at Tottenham if Jose Mourinho was in charge earlier

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Dele Alli produced yet another brilliant display as Tottenham Hotspur booked their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League last night.

Tim Sherwood has controversially claimed that Dele Alli wouldn’t have made it at Tottenham if Jose Mourinho was in charge of the club when the Englishmen first joined.

Alli first joined Spurs in 2015 from League One side MK Dons as an unknown figure and blossomed into one of the top talents in England under Mauricio Pochettino’s stewardship before stagnating during these past 12 months.

Even before Pochettino was sacked, it did seem Alli was getting back to his best and now under Mourinho, he is looking as good as ever, just like he proved in the Champions League last night.

But the outspoken former Spurs boss Sherwood thinks that Alli wouldn’t have been considered by Mourinho, who has spent big in the previous jobs he has worked at.

“Let’s face it you don’t have to spend a kings ransom and it’s a good one for Daniel Levy to point out to Mourinho and say ‘see that kid there, the one you are lauding up at the moment, the one who scored two goals in two games, he cost £5 million from League One’,” Sherwood told Bein Sports.

“Now, if Jose Mourinho was the manager he [Alli] came to Tottenham, he wouldn’t be there. Let’s face it! You are not buying a player from League One, who is not rehearsed at the top level. It’s not Jose’s thing to sign them.

“That’s an indication that they are out there and you don’t have to spend 100’s of millions of pounds all the time. You just need a good recruitment team to find the right players for the right manager.”

Mourinho has been speaking highly of Alli before and since replacing Pochettino in the North London dugout, as he is now hoping to get the best out of the attack-minded midfielder.

Given Mourinho’s character and ability to lift people, the Portuguese is perhaps the right person to work with Alli, at this moment in time, and help him rediscover the form that saw him being likened to the likes of Frank Lampard.

On Tuesday night, Spurs came from 2-0 down to beat Olympiakos 4-2 on home soil, with Alli starting the comeback, as Mourinho’s first-half substitution of Eric Dier for Christian Eriksen, when his team were trailing, ended up paying off.