Roy Keane proven spot on about Dele Alli as Everton ace flops on loan

Roy Keane will be feeling vindicated for his comments on Dele Alli five years ago, with the Everton midfielder enduring a turbulent loan spell at Besiktas this season. The 37-cap England international’s Premier League career appears over and he has struggled to shine in the Turkish Super Lig.

The 26-year-old has scored three times in 16 games for Besiktas, off the back of 13 appearances last term at Everton without a goal or an assist last year. Besiktas were at one point last month keen to cut his loan short and send him back to Merseyside.

Alli joined Everton 12 months ago from Tottenham for a potential fee of £40million – if performance-based add-ons are met – but he now finds himself at a crossroads in his career. Besiktas boss Senol Gunes said in November that Alli’s time in Turkey has fallen “below expectations in terms of efficiency”.

It is easy to forget just how good Alli – a back-to-back PFA Young Player of the Year winner – was at his peak and in his first five Premier League seasons he produced 50 goals and 36 assists in just 156 appearances as a No 10. His decline since has been astronomical.

But player-turned-pundit Keane was worried about Alli way back in 2018, when he was still a key man under Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentine coach said back then: “When you compare him at 21 years old with all the players in the world — I think he is the best. Dele Alli, for his age, is the best. Tell me one better than him, a 21-year-old, who has achieved as much? Maybe you can find similar — but better than him?”

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“We go back to it. He’s definitely lost that hunger. He did well, a couple of new contracts, a few bob come his way, you take your eye off the ball in this game and you get left behind.” Spurs have been vindicated in their decision to let Alli leave, and it is unclear where he goes from now in his career.

Keane was not the only one to warn the midfielder, with his former manager Jose Mourinho also having spelt out his own concerns in September 2020. Mourinho said – as filmed on Spurs’ All or Nothing Amazon Prime documentary – to Alli in a face-to-face meeting: “I’m 56 years old now and yesterday – yesterday! I was 20. Time flies. And one day you’ll regret it, I think, if you don’t achieve what you can achieve.

“I don’t expect you to be man of the match every game or to score in every game. I just want to tell you that you will regret it. You should demand more of yourself, not me demand more of you, not me. Not anyone. You. You have to demand more from yourself.”

Sadly, however, it seems unlikely Alli will ever rediscover the form that saw him tipped to be a Spurs and England mainstay for years to come. The Everton attacker may never even grace a pitch in his home country’s top flight again, which is a very sorry state of affairs given his obvious talents.