Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli has opened up on his relationship with manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham Hotspur playmaker Dele Alli has told the Daily Mail that he upsets manager Mauricio Pochettino ‘all the time’, and the Spurs boss didn’t even like him at first.
Spurs swooped to sign Alli from MK Dons in February 2015, but enabled him to remain with the League One club for the rest of the 2014/15 season, where he won promotion and scored 16 goals.
Whilst billed as one of English football’s top young talents, few could have expected Alli to have such a huge impact in his first season with Spurs, as he hit 10 goals and nine assists in his first Premier League campaign.
Alli followed that up with 18 goals and seven assists last term, continuing to thrive behind Harry Kane in the Spurs attack as the pair emerged as the top future stars of the England national team.
Alli is now a household name in the Premier League, and whilst his record of two goals and one assist this season is far from impressive given his usual high standards, Alli is still a vital part of the Spurs side and still has a huge future ahead of him.
Now, Alli has told the Daily Mail that when he first joined Spurs for pre-season training in 2015, his first one-on-one meeting was actually with Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez, who revealed that Pochettino didn’t like Alli at first, but had already come around to loving him.
Alli added that he upsets Pochettino ‘all the time’, but the Spurs boss also makes sure to pick his spirits up at training, as any negative body language could rub off on the rest of the Tottenham squad.
“When I signed for Spurs in 2015 I came to have a look around the training ground, but I think he [Pochettino] was in Spain. I didn’t see him till I came back for pre-season,” said Alli. “It was really hard and I didn’t know what he thought of me. The first proper one-on-one was with Jesus. They were speaking in Spanish and then Jesus said to me: ‘He didn’t like you…’ or similar. The boss was staring me in the eye to see how I reacted. I was speechless! He paused for like a second, and he said ‘…but now he loves you.’”
“In his chats, he insists we all have to want it, there are no excuses for being tired and stuff. He does push everyone all the time. At Palace [in January 2016] I made it 2–1 in the last 10 minutes. I watched the goal back and saw that he had run all the way down the line and was involved in the hug. I had not realised.”
“Do I upset him? Yeah, all the time. [Alli laughs]. A few weeks ago we were doing some shape work and I was a bit annoyed, not at him but just with some stuff. I was walking in and looking at the floor and he told me to lift my head up and smile. Later, he pulled me into his office and talked to me about how if I’m not being happy and positive it can have an effect on everyone. I didn’t realise how much,” he added.
With Spurs pursuing another new contract with Alli, Pochettino will be desperate to see the midfielder extend his stay in North London – but Daniel Levy will have to get his chequebook out and pay Alli accordingly to make that happen after two years of impressive performances.
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