Home from home for Dele

Dele Alli is thinking of home, growing up in Milton Keynes, playing football in the park, being taken on by MK Dons and signing autographs at school. Why? Because he's going home, back to MK for our Carabao Cup third round tie against Watford - and he’s shouting from the rooftops about it.

MK is everything to Dele. It’s his home town, the place he grew up and went to school, where he played football with mates on the streets and in the parks and most importantly for us all, where his raw talent was spotted by MK Dons at the tender age of 10 and honed into the player he is today.

Dele signed professional forms at MK in July, 2013 aged 17 having already made his debut aged 16 against Cambridge City in the FA Cup on 2 November, 2012. He scored on his home debut in the replay, a 6-1 win. His league debut soon followed against Coventry City in League One on 29 December, 2012.

Words don’t really do justice to Dele’s rise since then.

Snapped up by us in February, 2015, he’s won the PFA Young Player of the Year twice, been twice named in the PFA Team of the Season, won BBC Match of the Day’s Goal of the Season, earned 31 England caps, played in Euro 2016 and at the 2018 World Cup, where he scored against Sweden in the quarter-finals as England reached the last four in Russia.

He also recently became the latest of our current squad to reach 150 appearances for the Club – to the tune of 47 goals.

He’s 22.

One thing for sure though - Dele hasn’t and will never forget where he came from and a return to MK really is a dream date for him.

“I heard the rumours before that it could be a possibility (playing at MK) and I was trying to push it as much as I could!” he beamed. “I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be a great experience to go back there.

“It will be nice for the boys to see it as well because since I’ve been here I’ve been bigging it up to them all, saying how good the stadium is, so I hope it now lives up to it! It’s a great stadium and a great place. It’s where I grew up.”

Imagine the scenario. One minute you are Dele the schoolboy, forging a path through the youth system at your local professional club. The next minute, you’ve made your first team debut and are being tipped as the next big thing – and you are still walking through those school gates on a Monday morning!

He described how it felt to be taken on as a junior and that first step into the limelight. “It was massive at the time. I was playing Sunday League and then to get scouted and come up through the Academy... I think I was 10 when I first started.

“To break into the first team was the aim and when it finally happened it felt a bit surreal. I’m just a kid from Milton Keynes and then I’m playing for the first team!

“I was still at school at the time. I’d be going into the local school in Milton Keynes and people would be asking me for my autograph and it was a bit crazy.

“It was a dream come true for me at the time and I can’t thank the club enough for what they did for me, how they helped me, it was a great place to be for a young footballer.

“They helped me push through and gain the experience I needed to go into the Premier League.

“I was sad when I left but I knew it had to be done. It was a decision I made and to come into the Premier League, to come to Tottenham… I haven’t looked back since.”

Indeed. Dele’s achievements have been well-documented, achievements he takes in his stride. Mention that he has just reached the 150-game mark (151 after coming off the bench at Brighton) for the Club and scored 47 goals and he wants more.

“I need to get three more goals!” he responded. “In fact, four in the next one then it’s one goal every three games!

“Like I said, it’s been a great journey for me so far and I couldn’t be playing at a better place at the minute. I’ve a lot of people to thank for where I am. Time has flown by. I can’t believe I’m 22 now! I still remember when I was 17 so I know I can’t take anything for granted and I have to keep improving.”

After all the talk on MK, Dele turned to our Carabao Cup opponents Watford, a team that recently stung us in the Premier League via a 2-1 loss after we'd led at Vicarage Road.

“Watford have a lot of quality,” said Dele. “We lost to them in the Premier League and we’ll look to turn that around and put in a better performance than last time. It’s going to be a difficult game but it’s a game we want to win and we’ll have to play as well as we can to do that.”