Eric Dier has opened up about his relationship with Dele Alli and admitted he wishes he did more to help his former Tottenham and England teammate.
The pair played together at Spurs between 2015 and 2022 and became close friends when they starred during Mauricio Pochettino’s time at the club.
However, Alli began to struggle for form and fitness and moved to Everton in 2022, where he has yet to make an impact.
In July 2023, the attacking midfielder, 27, opened up about his career struggles and difficult upbringing in a heartbreaking interview with Gary Neville.
Among several harrowing revelations in the interview, Alli explained how he was sexually abused at the age of six, started dealing drugs at the age of eight and also revealed that he spent six weeks in rehab last year for a sleeping pill addiction and mental health issues.
Eric Dier opened up about his friendship with Dele Alli and admitted he wished he did more to help
Alli and Dier became close during their time as Tottenham teammates from 2015 to 2022
Alli opened up about his career problems and difficult childhood in an interview with Gary Neville
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And Dier, who was loaned to Bayern Munich in January after ten years at Tottenham, expressed his sadness at Alli’s problems.
“It’s hard for me to talk about Dele,” he continued The overlapis sponsored by Sky bet.
‘I speak to him all the time, every week, obviously it (the Gary Neville interview) was just really hard to watch.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the whole video, I’ve seen bits of it, but it’s hard for me to watch. He said some nice things about me, but it goes both ways.
‘He is also a good friend to me. It annoys me a little because people wanted to talk to me after that interview, but he’s also been a good friend to me. Dele is a special person.
‘I remember when I got married and knew he was in America, in rehab, and I spoke to him a few times and said there would be no problem if he couldn’t come and he almost got insulted, he came and was there for me. That’s the type of friend he’s been to me.”
Dier added that he wishes he had done a better job of helping Alli overcome his struggles and admitted that he has many regrets.
Dier expressed regret after learning of Alli’s struggles and finds it difficult to talk about him
Eric Dier spoke to Gary Neville about The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet
Alli has made just thirteen appearances for Everton, with his most recent appearance coming in August 2022
He added: ‘I’m disappointed I didn’t do more. In a lot of situations that I look back on, I wasn’t aware of the full picture and there’s a lot of things.
‘I was that annoying older person, I was always on his case so he would hide things from me, or tell me something but only give 20% of it.
“I have a lot of regrets and there were times when I wish I did more.”
Alli has made just 13 appearances since joining Everton – the last of which came in August 2022 – while the attacking midfielder also endured a difficult loan spell at Besiktas last season.
Eric Dier was speaking The overlapis sponsored by Sky bet
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