Sir Alex Ferguson advised Jose Mourinho to sign Dele Alli at Manchester United, as work ethic on training pitch is questioned in All or Nothing documentary
Jose Mourinho has revealed Sir Alex Ferguson’s sole piece of advice for him at Manchester United was to sign Dele Alli.
Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming documentary on Tottenham, All or Nothing – which airs on August 31 – details a conversation Tottenham boss Mourinho has with his chairman, Daniel Levy where he discusses his early impressions of Alli.
Mourinho calls Dele Alli ‘lazy’ in one of their early exchanges at Tottenham
In typically brutal fashion, the Portuguese tactician insists he needs to find Alli the ‘motivation’ to train well.
He said: “I already told Dele very directly that he doesn’t train well, he is not a good trainer.
“I am not saying a disaster but I am not saying Harry Kane, Harry Kane is a very good trainer.
“Sir Alex Ferguson gave me only one bit of advice in two and a half years: Buy Dele Alli. ‘That guy, with that mentality, the way he plays, the aggression he has in mind. This guy is the Manchester United player. Buy Dele Alli’.
“And [Ferguson] has an eye for a player. But [Alli] is not a good trainer, we need to find motivation for the guy.”
Mourinho revealed Sir Alex Ferguson urged him to sign Alli when he was at the club as the legendary boss saw him as a ‘Man United player’
Alli broke through at Spurs in brilliant fashion in the 2016/17 season following his move from MK Dons, scoring 18 goals in his debut top-flight season.
However, a string of injury setbacks have limited him to just 50 appearances in the past two seasons, while his ability to get goals and assists has also tailed off.
And another clip shows Mourinho telling his player he will be a ‘pain in the ass’ for him, adding it is a good thing.
“When I am a pain in the ass it means I like you,” he told him during their first training session together.
Townsend recalled to talkSPORT good memories of Alli at training and believes his enthusiasm may have waned under Pochettino before Mourinho’s arrival
Former Spurs winger Andros Townsend, though, told talkSPORT Alli was never poor on the training pitch when he played with him.
“He was never a bad trainer when I was there,” the Crystal Palace forward said.
“I think back to when Mourinho joined and Dele Alli was going through a bad spell. He wasn’t playing particularly well.
“He was out of favour with [Mauricio] Pochettino so maybe he just lost that enthusiasm and love of the game a little bit and that spilled over into the start of that Jose Mourinho spell.
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“I definitely didn’t see that during my spell with Dele.”
Ally McCoist agreed and admitted he could understand why Alli would be Sir Alex Ferguson’s type of player.
“Fergie likes people with a little bit of devilment,” the talkSPORT Breakfast presenter added. “Whether it’s a [Eric] Cantona or a [Wayne] Rooney, these guys are all absolutely top class football players but they’ve got something in their make-up that makes them a little bit different.
“The most important thing is that they can play but I can totally understand why Sir Alex saw that little bit of devilment in Dele Alli.”
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