A young lad with a ton of potential, Bamidele Alli appeared in the Premier League scenario at the age of 19 when he started playing for Tottenham Hotspur in what was to be a fantastic debut season for the youngster. Initially a product of the youth structure of MK Dons, Alli found a magnificent breakthrough last season as he ended up scoring a total of 10 goals in 46 appearances for the Spurs throughout the season. His prowess on the field earned him critical appreciation from the legends of the game. People like Frank Lampard and Sir Alex Ferguson hailed him as the next best thing for the English national team and even went as far as to suggest that he may be as good as paul Gascoigne.
Tottenham finished third in the 15/16 season, their best ever Premier League finish. As a result of his cumulative performance for the club, Alli found himself on the PFA Team of the Year and bagged the PFA Young Player of the Year award as an added asset. A brilliant year as far as a player of his age is concerned, recent developments, however, have been quite worrying. With England’s dispirited challenge at the Euros despite a dynamic and young team to a relatively slow start by the Spurs this season, the question then arises- is Dele Alli the next promising talent to succumb to the infamous second-season syndrome?
It might be a tad bit unfair to immediately speculate on his performance given the fact that the now 20-year old still has his entire career in front of him. His second spell for Tottenham Hotspur is yet to gather momentum as we are still in the early days of the League. A goal scoring CM is quite a rare commodity. Add to that, Alli’s agility and his ability to keep possession of the ball going forward and we might have ourselves a complete player. However, there may be more than one reason he might just falter. Cases of players like Robinho, El Hadji Diouf, and Giovani Dos Santos are all too familiar stories of talent eventually burning out under the pressure of expectations.
The Premier League is widely stated to be one of the toughest Leagues in the world. The sheer competitiveness coupled with the more strategic gameplay in most of the matches lead unseasoned players to easily tire out and stop delivering for their respective clubs. This is a major reason why players transferred from the La Liga, which employs a more attack based approach towards the games, often fail to make it big in the Premier League. Exceptions are always there but one must keep in mind that Alli is just 20 as of now. He may have clicked in his first season at England but he may have trouble fitting in as the games get tougher and the format more gruelling. The pressure might just lead to a burn out of immense talent.
So far, Alli has three appearances for the Spurs this season and has failed to make too big of an impact in most of those games. Two of those, the ones against Everton and Liverpool have ended in lacklustre deadlocks where no player from either of the two playing teams stood out. Against Everton, both Alli and Ross Barkley failed to deliver as Everton came out as the more consistent team in the match. Coming on as a late substitute in Spurs’ only win so far (against Crystal Palace), the hunger to perform well seemed to have returned. When he started playing, the impact was instant. He showcased a brilliant bending pass to Janssen within minutes of his arrival and seemed quite unperturbed and nonchalant of the taunting away crowd at White Hart Lane. In fact, he displayed maturity beyond his years to not let that kind of trash talk affect him as he went on to fire a shot that was just off target in the closing minutes of the game.
Alli recently suffered massive heartbreak after England crashed out of Euro 2016 after a match against Iceland in what was hailed as the worst ever performance by the English side in its history. His momentum quickly spiralled down from being a dream debut season in the League to a never ending nightmare for his national side. It is unclear as to how much the memory of England’s humiliating performance may affect his game but it might just be a harsh reality check for the prodigy. Rival fans of the Premier League are certainly not about to let that memory go as was evident from the “you let your country down” chants by the Crystal Palace supporters.
It is too early to judge his season based on the games played so far. However, nothing changes the fact that Alli is supremely talented. Under the right circumstances, he might just shine for Tottenham once again.
