Simon Jordan: ‘Idiot’ Dele Alli is ‘Done’ at Everton after image emerges
Simon Jordan believes Dele Alli is “done” at the highest level after he returned to Everton following his loan spell at Besiktas being cut short.
The former England international has returned to Goodison Park with a season-ending injury this week, and now has been pictured surrounded by laughing gas cannisters and balloons as his future is thrown up in the air.
But Jordan, while speaking to talkSPORT (10 April), had no sympathy for the 27-year-old attacking midfielder and claimed he was “overhyped” to begin with while claiming he is a shadow of the player he once was.
“Dele Alli has now for two or three years wasted everybody’s time,” he said.
“His own, his employers, his teammates. He’s gone from being a player that I always felt was overhyped, and I used to have debates with Gordon Strachan.
“I will bow to Gordon’s knowledge every single day of the week, but Gordon talked to me about he was the best number 10 in Europe. Now that may well be a decent argument at the time when he was flying back in 2018, but he’s a shadow of himself and he’s chosen this path.
“He’s chosen this path to be on documentaries like ‘All or Nothing’ where you get to see a laughing, gurning idiot getting told by his manager that he doesn’t train very well.
“I’ve seen people like Karl Robinson, who was his manager at MK Dons get quite cross with the media’s underlying observation about Dele’s performances but the fact of the matter is this kid has taken two years of his life, for whatever reason, or even three, flushed it down the toilet, can’t even get a game when he’s playing overseas and is now back to Everton.
“Sean Dyche might get a tune out of him. Sean Dyche has the capacity to get people facing the right way. He’ll have a very different experience with Sean Dyche than maybe some of the other managers he’s played with and for.
“My gut feel is that he’s done. He’s done certainly at a big club level. He’s back to Everton by default because of the nature of the loan and the agreement that they’ve got in place, and whatever has happened where he was at Besiktas.
“But what a waste of time. What a waste of an opportunity. What a waste of talent.
“I never thought he was at the level that people built him up to, but he was a damn sight better than he is now.
“Maybe he can restart the engines, but it’s been a long time for him to be in neutral or even in park. So if he can put it back in drive again, I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Wasted
Something must have happened to Dele Alli that nobody is aware of, because talent like he has doesn’t just disappear overnight.
This is a player who was scoring goals for fun at the highest level and was a regular starter for the England national team, and suddenly it all fell apart.
He’s never managed to get it back after that initial dip in form and despite warnings from several managers and at different clubs, he just doesn’t seem to care anymore.
His future at Everton is all but non-existent, with Fabrizio Romano reporting his agents are now looking for a way out of Goodison Park, but who will take him after everything that has happened in the last few years?
Jordan is right, his career at the top level is over, and now it just stands to see if he is willing to step down for the love of the game or if he has fallen out of love with the sport entirely.