Sheringham on Dele: 'He's producing outstanding results'

Teddy Sheringham believes Dele Alli has some “outstanding” years ahead of him after watching the midfielder’s phenomenal rise.

Plucked from League One, where he was a shining light for MK Dons, in 2015, Dele went into our first team set-up at the start of 2015-16 and immediately set about showing his skills at the top level.

Quickly making himself a senior England international, he finished that campaign with an impressive 10 goals to his name but, as it transpired, that was only the beginning!

He more than doubled that haul in an even better season last time out and claimed the PFA Young Player of the Year award for a second year in a row, in addition to earning countless other accolades as we secured our highest league finish since 1963.

Legendary former striker Teddy spoke to us towards the end of the campaign to analyse Dele’s link-up play with Harry Kane in our matchday programme, but the 51-year-old also shared some additional insight about Dele’s maturity in his own right.

“For someone still so young, he’s been very good,” Teddy explained. “A lot of people forget what it was like to be 21. I know from my point of view, I was still learning my trade and trying to understand what I could and couldn’t do on a football pitch at that age.

“He’s doing that, but he’s doing it at the top level and producing outstanding results week in, week out, so for me, he can only get better.

“I think the next four or five years will be outstanding years for Dele because he’s really grasped what he can and can’t do very quickly and he’s performing regularly.”

In the programme, Teddy went on to explain how comparisons can be drawn between Dele’s on-field relationship with striker Harry to his own famed understanding with Darren Anderton back in the 1990s and again early the following decade after the front man returned from Manchester United.

“I just think every now and again you get a relationship with a particular player,” he said. “It doesn’t come around very often in your career but sometimes you just click with someone, like I had the understanding with Darren Anderton.

“You enjoy playing, you know what people want to do, what they’ll try to do and I think that’s what Harry and Dele have got. They just look like they understand each other and know instinctively where they’d like the ball to be passed to.

“You can talk to each other on a football pitch. Obviously you can’t always, but it’s not always about word of mouth, it might just be eye contact or maybe even putting a hand up to say that you want it right or left. Sometimes you know when someone’s going to get their head up and look at you to be able to give them that signal. Darren used to do it from corners and I’d just give him a little signal. You just get an understanding that is uncanny and long may it continue for Tottenham. It’s just a lovely combination to watch.”