Whenever there is a youngster in making for any club, he gets different advices from different experts of the game regarding his future and how tough it is going to be for him should he fail sometime. Tottenham Hotspur’s 19-year-old promising midfielder Dele Alli is one such player who impressed everyone with his style of play and resistive ball holding technique during England vs Germany friendlier and former Liverpool manager Steven Gerrard is the first one to express his feelings about his future and how can he survive of negative media converge should he fail in the field. Talking about the game and how Three Lions played against Germans, longest serving Reds manager raised hopes for a better display in the Euro 2016 and major contribution is expected from young players including Alli who is in brilliant form these days but at the same time he also asked Spurs not to pressurize him ahead of every crucial game.
Talking about the rising expectations of fans from English players, Gerrard said in his recent interview, “The last thing I want to do is put a dampener on the enthusiasm for our prospects this summer — I was as excited as everyone by our performance against Germany. But two assets most lacking in the build-up to a major tournament tend to be calmness and perspective. If I could offer one piece of advice to Dele Alli and the England youngsters vying for a European Championship spot it’s this: embrace the moment because now it’s going to get really tough.
“I am loving watching Alli play at the moment and want to see him have more opportunities, but I’m less enthusiastic about the idea we should prematurely dump established England internationals. There is so much to like about how he plays the game. He has technique and attitude. It’s not just his skill I admire, but his temperament. I like his football arrogance where he absorbs every challenge and gets on the ball as if he belongs on the biggest of stages.”
Actually, Gerrard is the one who had seen great potential in 19-year-old earlier and even wanted him for Anfield side last January, but somehow, lost him, he added recalling the opportunity, “I’m not sure how close we were, but it’s too easy to start calling out clubs for not taking a chance on him. Liverpool certainly weren’t alone. I’m not a fan of wisdom after the event where clubs are criticised for who they did not sign. Judge the transfers that did happen. Spurs are now reaping the rewards.”