You’ve all seen the timeline of Dele Alli‘s much-discussed decline that followed his astonishingly rapid ascent from MK Dons’ cheeky chappy to Tottenham and England’s golden boy.
It goes a little something like this: Tottenham and England regular at 19; PFA Young Player of the Year at 20 and again at 21; World Cup quarter-final goalscorer at 22; Champions League finalist at 23; and, now that he has joined Besiktas on loan after an underwhelming spell with Everton, seemingly finished by 26. Somewhere along the path to greatness, Alli took a wrong turn. And then another one, ending up in Istanbul rather than Madrid or Barcelona.
The general consensus around Alli’s move to Besiktas is that his career at the top level is over; players do not trade the Premier League for the Süper Lig when they are at their peak. That argument is strengthened by Alli’s inability to make an impact for a struggling Everton side devoid of goalscorers. His time on Merseyside yielded one Premier League start, 13 appearances in total and no goals or assists.
“It hasn’t worked out for Dele here for different reasons,” Frank Lampard said matter-of-factly during his Friday press conference. “He can go there now and hopefully play games, have success, [it will] help him personally and help us. We’ll review it through the year and obviously at the end of the season.”
A more optimistic view is that this move to a big club in a new league and a new country can have a galvanising effect on Alli and help him rediscover his joy for the game which seems to have been diminished. There are few places more welcoming for a high-profile footballer than Turkey, after all.
Alli was treated to the full fan experience upon touching down at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on Wednesday night, with hordes of frenzied supporters waiting to greet their new prodigal son. It has been some time since Alli has impacted games at the top level, but try telling that to the Besiktas fans intoxicated on the idea that he can rediscover his magic in their white and black colours.
Cartoon characters Rick and Morty, of whom Alli has tattoos on his left arm, were borrowed for the club’s typically inventive social media announcement, beaming the midfielder onto the Vodafone Park pitch from a spaceship.
Ｏ ＡＲＴＩＫ ＢİＲ ＫＡＲＡ ＫＡＲＴＡＬ!
— Beşiktaş JK (@Besiktas) August 25, 2022
Ｄ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｌ Ｅ
Ａ Ｌ Ｌ Ｉ Ｉ Ｉ Ｉ Ｉ #WelcomeDele @dele_official pic.twitter.com/NM5jjLS8ZJ
“The energy from the fans even when I just arrived was amazing so I’m looking forward to it,” Alli said in his first interview as a Besiktas player. When asked whether he wanted to send a message to them, he responded: “Thank you for the support they’ve shown me so far, I’m going to repay them and fight for them every minute that I’m on the pitch and work hard and hopefully I can entertain and bring a lot of success.”
“The whole fanbase is thrilled to have him here,” Besiktas fan and blogger Aaron Armstrong tells i enthusiastically. “A lot of players come to Turkey and reinvent themselves. It happened with Mario Gomez and Vincent Aboubakar [both at Besiktas]. It feels to me like this could be another comeback story.”
Adapting to a completely different culture will be one of the challenges that Alli faces, but reuniting with a couple of familiar faces should help smooth the transition. One-time Spurs colleagues Georges-Kevin N’Koudou and Gedson Fernandes are in Besiktas’ squad, while the club’s former Premier League contingent extends further to Romain Saiss, Arthur Masuaku, Wout Weghorst, Cenk Tosun and Rachid Ghezzal.
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The Europa League group stage draw in full, including who Arsenal and Man Utd play26 August, 2022Armstrong believes the influx of ex-Premier League stars to Besiktas this season has been a deliberate ploy to ensure that new manager Valerien Ismael – formerly of Barnsley and West Brom – has players accustomed to high-intensity, pressing football. And Alli, whose pressing and defensive stats contrast with Jose Mourinho’s infamous depiction of him as a “f___ing lazy guy” is seen as integral to Ismael’s plan.
“I believe he’s going to play for a team that suits his needs because he’s going to be surrounded by players that have Premier League experience,” Armstrong reasons. “I think he will play in a No 10 role and he’ll have to press because we don’t control possession that much. We play this transition game where we press high up the pitch and look to counter-attack.
“I believe that the recruitment team identified Dele because of his statistics. I know that he has regressed a lot [in terms of attacking output] but he still has immense numbers for individual pressing so that’s one of the reasons why they wanted to take a gamble.”
Like Everton, Besiktas endured a difficult 2021-22 season, albeit one less perilous. The Black Eagles’ sixth place finish represented their worst league position in 24 years but a new-look team has started the current campaign in decent shape, collecting seven points from their opening three matches.
Slotting into a winning side in an inferior league should, in theory, be easier than one scrapping for points. Even if Besiktas fans are a demanding bunch.
“The hype is already there and fans are expecting a lot from him,” Armstrong admits. “The team has massive expectations and the fan pressure might be even higher than what it was at Tottenham. The players and club will do all they can to help him get his groove back.”
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