So it seems that Dele Alli had a choice. Let his career quietly drift away on a tidal wave of perceived indifference or very real unhappiness, or confront the problems that threaten to ruin his life forever.
Alli, still a young man at the age of 27, has walked the hard road and there will be a lot of people in football who will be relieved about that.
Alli’s encounter with Gary Neville in a TV studio sometimes feels less like an interview and more like a confessional, a release from grief.
It’s like opening a locked door and now the grim secrets of Alli’s life come out. The abuse, the addictions, the mental horrors. The sheer misery of it all.
We will now look at Alli with different eyes and above all hope for his recovery.
Dele Alli’s interview with Gary Neville was more of a release of grief as he revealed the grim secrets of his life, including abuse, addiction and mental anguish.
Despite recent troubles at Everton and Besiktas, Alli remains optimistic about his future
We also hope for a return to the football field, but that is secondary. First, we wish him some stability and some luck.
Alli’s revelation about Neville’s Overlap shows that he was abused as a child and will have affected those who know him more deeply than we can truly imagine.
There is a fondness for him at MK Dons and at Tottenham in particular that has been around for a long time.
Meanwhile, football has been talking about his problems with sleeping pills for some time. Medical confidentiality issues rightly prevented its disclosure.
But like any addict, he faces a dilemma. Ignore his problems, pretend they aren’t real and let them slowly lead him into a dark hole from which it can be desperately difficult to escape.
Or confront them, tackle them and try to beat them.
That battle, we imagine, will continue. But self-awareness underpins it all and as such, the first round may already be won. Alli has started treatment and that may prove to be the most difficult and important step of all.
Today it is appropriate to once again question the culture of machismo that still runs firmly through the center of all football locker rooms.
Alli revealed he spent six weeks in rehab in the US this summer after returning from his loan spell at Besiktas in Turkey.
Alli’s time at Tottenham was unraveled with the promise of his early career coming to an end
He was loaned to Turkish club Besiktas last season but failed to get back on track
Has it really changed as much as football likes to tell itself? Honestly, no. Vulnerability is unfortunately still seen as a weakness in top sport.
Similarly, each club – each employer – can only do so much. More often than not, the desire to change – to accept help – must come from within. At Spurs and even at Everton they did what they could for their player.
Those who know Alli well say that he was at his best as a footballer when he felt he had something to prove. At Milton Keynes and then in his early days at Tottenham.
As soon as he became what he had wanted to be for so long – an established elite talent – they thought they saw the fire go out.
Well, in life as well as in sport, he may have a chance, as desperately difficult as it may be, to grow back from the ground up.
It’s certainly easy to forget that Alli scored in a World Cup quarter-final for England in 2018
Under Mauricio Pochettino, Alli flourished at Tottenham, winning two PFA Young Player of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017
But after the Argentine’s departure from the club, Alli struggled to adapt to the styles of other managers, including Jose Mourinho.
Alli was always one of English football’s brightest talents. Athletic and smart with the ability to see angles, opportunities and openings that really can’t be taught.
However, none of this seems particularly important now. The young man sitting on a bench in front of Neville’s TV cameras did so not as an athlete, but as a damaged young man seeking a way out of the darkness.
Whatever we may one day say about his abilities, his career or his contribution to the English game, this hour of dialogue could prove to be one of the most important of his life.
What’s more, Alli’s candor, courage, and transparency—his disclosure of his trauma and his fear—can also encourage other troubled young people to take a deep breath and pick up the phone. Perhaps we should especially thank him for that.