Cenk Tosun shares what everyone thought of Dele Alli behind the scenes at Everton
Dele Alli’s move to Everton has not gone to plan at all, but Cenk Tosun is still backing his former teammate to turn things around.
Alli made a permanent move to Goodison Park at the start of the year in a deal that could potentially rise to £40million [Sky Sports], but the 26-year-old fell flat in Merseyside and escaped to Turkish outfit Besiktas on loan in the summer.
However, Alli is still struggling to rediscover the form that once saw him viewed as the Premier League’s most exciting talent.
But Tosun, who played alongside Alli at Everton and now also at Besiktas, has backed the English midfielder to turn things around.
“Dele Alli and I played together at Everton,” Tosun told Turkish outlet Daily Sabah, as quoted by Liverpool Echo.
“Dele is a very nice person. Everyone in the team is always travelling, the kit man, the cook, and everybody loves him. He jokes with everyone. He will hopefully get to a good place.
“He came from London, he is going through an adjustment period. When he overcomes that, he will make a great contribution to the team.”
Revival
Alli is in desperate need of a career revival, but as time ticks on it looks more and more unlikely.
Alli burst onto the Premier League scene with Tottenham as a youngster but his form tailed off towards his latter years in north London, with Jose Mourinho openly criticising his laziness. [GiveMeSport]
After falling out of favour at Spurs, Frank Lampard offered him a lifeline at Everton, but the Toffees clearly paid well over Alli’s market value and have been made to look like fools after his awful start at Goodison Park.
He failed to impress Lampard and make it into his lineup in a season where Everton were fighting tooth and nail to survive relegation.
He was then quickly offloaded on loan, where he’s continued to look poor. It’s down to Alli to sort things out and rescue his career. There doesn’t seem to be space in the Everton squad for him to make a return, and at the moment, he’d be lucky to receive any Premier League interest at all.
Tosun’s ambition is admirable, but his Alli prediction seems to be more of a hopeful show of support rather than a realistic possibility.