Jose Mourinho has hinted Dele Alli might not be doing enough to turn around his situation at Tottenham.
England international Alli has been confined to the margins of Mourinho s squad this season, with only one of his four Premier League appearances coming as a starter.
Those top-flight outings total a meagre 74 minutes overall and, although he has been a more frequent fixture in midweek cup line-ups, reports that the 24-year-old is unhappy hardly come as a surprise.
A reunion with former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain has been touted, although Mourinho insisted having disgruntled players in a dressing room is a fact of life for any coach.
However, when distinguishing between unhappy players who work, work, work and work and others who think such toil is not his job , he tellingly did not specify a category for Alli.
In every dressing room are unhappy players, he told reporters ahead of Sunday s match against the Premier League s bottom club, Sheffield United.
For sure. If any one of us, of my tribe, tells you that in his dressing room are only happy players, I don t think it s true. Or somebody is so, so lucky to have a miracle in his hands.
Then you can have [an] unhappy professional and the unhappy professional is the one that is unhappy but feels that his duty is to work, work, work and work.
And there is the unhappy [player] that believes that it’s not his job to fight and to work every minute for the squad and for the club.
— Dele (@dele_official)
Nevertheless, Mourinho suggested he would probably be reluctant to let Alli leave if Spurs are unable to source a replacement during this transfer window.
The question is if I let Dele go without getting a player in exchange and I m not going to answer that, he said.
It’s not a question that I am comfortable to answer. Of course, I would know how to answer.
But I am not ready to answer. I am not ready to make public my vision of the situation.
