Dele Alli sets record straight on viral Jose Mourinho conversation

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Dele Alli sets record straight on viral Jose Mourinho conversation

Dele Alli has given his version of events of a conversation he had with Jose Mourinho while at Tottenham Hotspur back in 2019.

Footage from Spurs' Amazon Prime All or Nothing documentary revealed some of the pair's first conversations after Mourinho was drafted in to replace Mauricio Pochettino as manager.

In a meeting in front of the entire first-team squad, Mourinho called out Dele despite having hardly worked with him.

"F***ing lazy. I understood already that you are a f***ing lazy guy in training," he said.

Mourinho then brought Dele into his office where he urged him to make the most of his ability.

"I think one day you will regret if you don't reach what you can reach," he scolded.

"I'm not expecting you to be the man of the match every game, I'm not expecting you to score goals every game, I just want to tell you I think you will regret. You should demand more from you, not me demanding more from you."

Speaking to chairman Daniel Levy, Mourinho added: "I told Dele directly he doesn't train well, he's not a good trainer. I'm not saying a disaster, but I'm not saying a Harry Kane."

These clips have since gone viral and been used as a stick to beat Dele with when he underperforms.

In an interview with his former England coach Gary Neville on The Overlap, the Everton midfielder was given the chance to give his side of the story.

"I'm glad you asked me about that. That 'lazy' comment, people love to bring that up. That interview on Amazon, he called me 'lazy'. That was the day after a recovery day. A week later, he apologised to me because he'd seen me actually train and play," Dele revealed.

"But that wasn't in the documentary and no one spoke up about that. In the team meeting he called me lazy, but one-on-one, I think it was on the pitch, he apologised for it.

"I didn't think anything of it at the time because I know I'm not lazy."

He added: "What you see sometimes isn't the way it really is. Especially now with social media and all these things, we can really portray something that isn't real.

"After that [the 'lazy' comment], people definitely tried to use that for some other decisions. I think other coaches maybe, [there were] other reasons why I weren't playing, but they stuck to that 'lazy' one because it was kind of an easy one to use. The problem was probably more than that I think."

Dele also admitted that after being dropped by Mourinho for long stretches, he considered retiring from football.

"Probably the saddest moment for me was when Mourinho was manager, I think I was 24," Dele continued.

"I remember there was one morning I woke up and I had to go to training - this is when he'd stopped playing me. I was in a bad place and I remember just looking in the mirror and I was asking if I could retire now at 24, doing the thing I love.

"For me, that was heartbreaking. To have even had that thought at 24, to retire, that hurt me a lot. That was another thing I had to carry."