Alli to make England sub appearance

There has been much talk over Dele Alli's call up to the England squad by Roy Hodgson with the major factor almost overlooked. Alli himself was delighted of course.

“I was speechless. It’s been a really good start to the season for me. I maybe didn’t expect it to go this well. At the start of the season, I set myself a target to try to become a regular in the under-21s and try to get a few starts in the Premier League. 

“Obviously, I’ve got a few starts already, so it’s been a great start and I can’t thank the players and staff enough for helping me settle in and play as well as I have been.”

Roy Hodgson revealed that his assistant Ray Lewington has watched him play 20 or 30 times and between the pair of them have watched him 7 or 8 times this season, he has only had a role in 9 games.

It won't be admitted and would probably even be denied, but England want to secure Dele Alli for themselves, Nigeria are chasing every half-caste player with links they can find and courting them to play for the African side. John Fashanu has been trying to convince Alli to switch from England youth to Nigeria who wanted to play him at Under-23 level. 

By picking him just 5 months after he was playing in League One and after he has started only 3 Premier League games, Hodgson can send him on as a substitute to secure his services for England.

In international football you have the ridiculous situation where a player can play at youth level for one country, at friendly international level for another country and is only tied to what is supposed to be his nationality by a competitive international fixture. With such a small pool of players playing in the Premier League England need to secure as many players as they can, although Dele Alli was always going to win an England call-up at some point, h is that good.

Even while playing at Milton Keynes he was being referred to as the next Steven Gerrard, Liverpool tried to sign him, Newcastle United came close, but Alli wanted to stay in London near his family and Spurs were determined to get him after Pochettino insisted we sign him following his performance in the demolition of Manchester United in the League Cup last season.

That decision has already been justified. He impressed everyone during pre=season training and was going to be eased into life at the top level, that plan has been thrown out of the window thanks to his impressive start. Now England are keen to secure his services for so Roy Hodgson and his team will look at him during training and then I expect to see him make a substitute appearance against either of our European Championship Qualifier opponents Estonia and Lithuania.

---