Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood has backed Dele Alli to make an extraordinary U-turn and get his career back on track after struggling to make an impact at both Everton and Besiktas.
The 27-year-old made the move to Goodison Park in January 2022, ending his seven-year stint with Tottenham Hotspur, who he joined at the age of 18. Dele initially arrived at Everton on a free transfer with the Blues only required to pay add-on fees once certain performance-related clauses had been met.
Of those clauses, one would see a £10m payment made if he tallied 20 appearances for the club. However, after making just 13 Premier League outings under Lampard last season, in August the 27-year-old was shipped out to Turkish outfit Besiktas on a season-long loan.
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Meanwhile, in the Super Lig things haven't gone to plan for the midfielder either, with Besiktas manager Senol Gunes taking regular swipes at Dele's attitude prior to his season being curtailed due to needing surgery on a persisting hip issue.
But despite such setbacks, Sherwood has backed the England international to turn his fortunes around and insisted "he hasn't turned into a bad player overnight".
“I think Dele could still turn it around, I don’t think he’s done. He’s still young enough, but he needs someone to talk to and someone needs to talk some sense into him. He hasn’t turned into a bad player overnight, but he’s certainly lost his way,” said Sherwood, speaking on the Up Front podcast.
“Now he needs to realise that he needs to adapt and find a way. He needs to look at himself and say ‘I can still turn this around’, don’t blame anyone else and look at himself and realise that he’s still young enough.
"I’d love to see him turn it around because he’d get a lot of credit for that. As much as he feels like everyone is against him now, I think everyone would admire his determination to turn it round.
“Dele hit the floor running after he was brought in from MK Dons. He had a manager who wanted to work with him and improve him and he bought into the playing style."
He added: “He’s not a number 10 in the way that Dennis Bergkamp or Gianfranco Zola were, he’s more of a Frank Lampard who bursts and arrives in the box and scores goals, and the team played to those strengths.
“I don’t think it’s a case of him needing to find the right club to fit him. I think he really needs to decide in his own mind that he needs to shape himself to be the right person to fit a football club and not just wait for it to happen, because it won’t. I think he’s either not listening or he’s not getting the advice.”
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