Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that the only advice he got from Sir Alex Ferguson when he was manager of Manchester United was to sign Dele Alli.
Jose Mourinho made the confession to his chairman Daniel Levy in a meeting which was shown on the Amazon Prime Video documentary All or Nothing.
The Portuguese coach had just taken over from Mauricio Pochettino as Tottenham boss and was talking about his early impressions of Alli.
He said: “I told already 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 he (Ferguson) has an eye for a player. But he (Alli) is not a good trainer, we need to find motivation for the guy.”
Dele Alli was one of the brightest prospects in the Premier League after bursting on to the scene at Tottenham aftervhis move from MK Dons, scoring 18 goals in the 2016/17 campaign.
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But, injuries have seen him limited to just 25 league matches in each of the last two seasons, with his goal tally and influence also going down.
During Mourinho’s first training session, he accused the midfielder of being “lazy”, before saying: “I am going to be a pain in the ass for you. And you are lucky because when I am a pain in the ass it means I like you.”
Tottenham are set to start the 2020/21 Premier League campaign against Everton on Saturday, September 12, with Mourinho looking to build on a sixth-placed finish to his first season in charge of the club.
