Tottenham fans will enjoy Dele Alli’s plan to ‘achieve greatness’ in football
Tottenham fan-favourite Dele Alli has now opened up on the emotions of being back out on the pitch after more than a two-year absence and has offered an interesting rebuttal to the things that have been said about his red card.
Dele returned to the pitch after 748 days against AC Milan, but his comeback ended in disaster, with the attacking midfielder being sent off just nine minutes after his introduction.
The former Tottenham man caught Milan midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the back of his shin, and although he was initially shown a yellow, it was changed to red by the referee following the intervention of VAR.
In fact, his former Spurs teammate, Kyle Walker even pleaded to the referee not to send the midfielder off, but those pleas fell on deaf ears.
Dele Alli makes an admission about his long road to return
It was certainly not the way that Dele would have wanted his Como debut to go, but the former Tottenham man has admitted that he was itching to get on when he knew he was going to be involved.
The England international spoke of the hard work he has done behind the scenes to overcome his fitness issues and spoke about the ‘special feeling’ of finally running out onto the pitch.
When asked about his debut at the San Siro, Dele told Como’s social media platform: “It was just pure excitement. I think I had been training well and working hard and it’s been two years of working hard, whether it be on the training pitch in the gym or even in a hotel room with my physio.
“Even though I spent the last two games on the bench and not coming on, I fully trust the process that the manager had. It was definitely a special feeling just because I know the journey it has been. I’d been obviously focused on the game and trying to help the team.
“We were 2-1 down, so I wanted to go out there, I wanted to help, to score or help the team score, just play a part and turn the result around because we were losing. Of course, as soon as he said my name I was like ‘yeah, OK, I’m ready.'”
Tottenham fans will want to see Dele achieve ‘greatness’
Como boss Cesc Fabregas was extremely critical of Dele for his challenge, opining that it was a clear red card challenge.
However, the 28-year-old sees it differently, insisting that he was only trying to commit a tactical foul by tripping Lofus-Cheek, and claiming that the freeze frame image of his contact makes the challenge seem worse than it is.
When asked about the red card, Dele Alli said: “For me, it was clear what I was trying to do, it was a tactical foul, a tactical yellow, no malice or force, or recklessness in the challenge.
“You see the pictures after the game of my stud on his calf but there was no force or anything. If you pause the image of course it looks bad. I hope to achieve a lot of things, trying to achieve greatness because I believe that’s what Como is destined for and I want to be a part of that.”
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