Lampard urges Dele Alli to be focused
Everton manager Frank Lampard delivered a damning farewell message to Dele Alli by warning his former player that he must work harder and re-focus if he is to get his career back on track.
The Everton manager admits his club’s “calculated gamble” in signing Dele, who has joined the Turkish club Besiktas on a season-long loan, failed to pay off and suggested the England midfielder is now at a critical crossroads in his career.
Moving to Goodison Park was seen as a chance to reverse an alarming career decline for a player who was an England regular when he helping Gareth Southgate’s squad reach the World Cup final in Russia four years ago.
But he failed to score a goal or provide an assist in his 13 appearances, which included only one start, and with Lampard unimpressed by his work ethic there seems no way back for him at the Merseyside club unless there is a drastic improvement in his performances in Turkey.
“Having worked close with him for a period,” Lampard said, “I have to say he really does need to understand the relation of training and focus at the highest level to what that means to performance. That is my personal opinion. And I’m not saying anything there that I wouldn’t say to any player, it’s not just the Dele story, I would say it to any player because it’s the only thing I know.
“I wasn’t the same, but I actually know on a personal level what training can do and focus can do, and that’s something he really has to take on board. Because I think if he can take that on board, then it can be not just a great thing for him, but for the team-mates around in the squad that he’s in.
“That is the test for him now. I do have great empathy for the trajectory of his career in a sense, because it is just clear to see — I don’t have to dress that up in any way.”
José Mourinho voiced similar criticism of Dele when he worked with him at Tottenham Hotspur, and Lampard says Dele has to heed the warning signs for the sake of his career.
“He has to do it — every player has to do it. This sport is too elite at the top end; if you want to be in that bracket, or to be influential at a club like Everton, or Tottenham where he was before, or anywhere [you have to focus].
“Every player has to have a version of what is best for them and what gets the most out of them, and not every player will do the amount of training that a certain player does, but the focus has to be there and if you don’t have it at this level it is really, really tough — and those are the rules.”
