Dier and Dele: A Bromance...

Would Eric Dier be enough to keep Dele Alli at Spurs? Yep, I know what you’re thinking – slow news day, huh? 

But just think about it. Dele and Eric are best mates. They’re inseparable. We’ve all seen the videos of them winding each other up. There’s a serious bromance there. So, this begs the question: were Dele to have another superb season, and, say, Barcelona offered an insane amount for his services, would the thought of leaving Eric Dier be enough to persuade him to stay – for another season at least?

Last season, Alli gatecrashed an interview with Dier for Spurs TV, resulting in an otherwise serious interview with the Holding Midfielder, turning into a more light-hearted version, with neither Alli nor Dier being able to keep a straight face. 

When Dier got his revenge a few weeks later, he posed the question:

“What’s been the highlight of your year?” 

Alli, after a few seconds, responded: 

“Meeting you!” 

Dier laughed it off, commenting: “it’s emotional, it’s a bit emotional,” before asking for a serious answer. But jokes aside, there was sincerity in Alli’s answer and there’s little doubt that the meeting between the pair will have made the highlight’s reel of their respective years. 

The pair began to form their bond whilst forming an – at the time at least – unlikely midfield pairing. Alli was being slowly introduced to the team, with his ever-growing reputation forcing the boss to quickly give him a starting role, resulting in an alarmingly fast transition from League One football to the Premier League. Dier, however, had been filling the vacant Holding Midfield slot due to the club being unable to bring in cover for several injuries. 

Dier himself started a little shakily, with many fans questioning Pochettino’s decision to field the young Englishman in an unfamiliar position, especially in such an important area of the pitch. But he soon adapted and became a regular feature in the Spurs midfield and, in doing so, limiting the opportunities for the previous season’s breakthrough pairing, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb. 

In fact, it’s not against the realms of possibility that Eric Dier could attract the attention of other clubs. A regular at centre half for most of his debut season in North London, following Federico Fazio’s sudden omission from the first team. Versatile enough to slot in at right back if the occasion called for it, but Dier has now made the Holding Midfield role his own. 

His own rise to prominence has seen him become known as one of the best Defensive Midfielders in the league, and an ever-present fixture in the national team. 

Alli began his permanent starting role alongside Dier, with the reborn Mousa Dembele playing further ahead as the centrepiece of the attacking trio behind Kane. The pair even made their first England starts together at Wembley, vs upcoming (at the time) European Championship hosts France.

But before long, Alli’s attacking prowess saw him moved further forward, with Dembele returning to the Alli-shaped gap in central midfield. 

Following Alli’s wonder goal away at Crystal Palace in January 2016, there was a realisation among many that we were witnessing the emergence of a truly top class talent. The goal in question, where Alli controlled a knockdown from Christian Eriksen on his chest, before flicking the ball over both his own head, as well as Mile Jedinak’s, before unleashing a volley destined for the bottom corner, was voted Goal of the Season for 2015/16. 

Then the inevitable talk started. The general consensus was that, no disrespect to Spurs, but it probably wouldn’t be long until Barcelona or Madrid came calling. And as Leicester City have now shown, even winning titles doesn’t guarantee that your big players will stay. 

But even in a generation of Mario Balotelli’s and Raheem Sterling’s, players who it’s difficult to argue aren’t motivated solely by their bank balance, there’s still proof that a few young players exist who care more about their careers than their haircuts. Harry Kane, for example. 

That may be a biased example, coming from a Spurs fan, but the fact is he has distanced himself from a move away from White Hart Lane on multiple occasions and, providing Spurs don’t gradually slip down the league table, there’s a strong likelihood he’ll be at his boyhood club for the rest of his career. 

A less biased example, then, is Jamie Vardy. Although not such a youngster anymore, his rise to prominence hasn’t been dissimilar and many of us were not only surprised, but amazed to learn how close Leicester’s star striker is to the thirty mark – not just in goals, either. Vardy’s on-pitch attitude has remained that of somebody determined to not only reach the highest level, but also to stay there too. 

After much thought during the summer, Vardy chose to remain loyal to Leicester, the club that had been the catalyst for his explosion onto the world stage. This was at the cost of being offered the chance to lead the line for Arsenal, who it’s widely known have long needed an upgrade on their strike force. 

But back to Spurs, who have a past reputation for developing young stars before selling them off to Spain or Manchester for big bucks, unable to convince them that the club can go places. Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale are among a list of the world’s finest talents to have plied their trade at Hotspur way before seeking silverware in pastures new. 

Under Maurico Pochettino, however, this has been an entirely different story. This is largely because Pochettino likes to create a small squad full of players willing to fight for each other. The players brought in must have the correct attitude and temperament or are likely to find themselves frozen out, before being sold on.

This environment allows younger players to develop not only as footballers, but also as human beings. There is no room for big egos or players demanding large contracts in return for bench warming duty every weekend. This is an environment where players like Dele Alli and Eric Dier have thrived, and it seems that over the two years that the Argentine boss has been at the helm, the bigger players have quickly realised that their careers are in safe hands. 

Admittedly it’s still relatively early days, but come the end of the transfer window, if Spurs are to have made it three consecutive summers without a rising star deciding to better themselves elsewhere, it’s truly a good sign for the future. 

On the other hand, it’s not unusual for footballing friendships to follow each other to each club. It’s no coincidence that Brazilian left back Maxwell followed his close friend Zlatan Ibrahimović to most of the clubs that the Swedish star has played at. 

There’s also talk that a certain academy graduate from Hotspur Way, by the name of Tom Carroll, hasn’t been moved on yet due to his close friendship with Harry Kane.

Despite many fans of the club thinking Carroll simply isn’t up to the required standard and should be offered to other clubs, he remains happy to be a squad member and to fill in during early rounds of cup competitions. And if that helps to keep Kane happy, I’m not sure any of us will complain.

Lads Raring To Go After Italian Job

“SIX?! How many more can we get? Maybe 7, or 8!” Let’s be honest, that was your reaction last Friday afternoon, at around 5.30pm, wasn’t it? Mine too. Let’s just level with each other.

The game was in the 77^th minute and youngster Shayon Harrison had just made it six, a matter of minutes after entering the field, against the mighty Internazionale. A club that’s seen the likes of Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic gracing its famous shirt. 

Although not quite such a major force in European football these days, there was still a need to prepare properly and give the opposition the utmost respect, that their famous crest deserves, even in a pre-season friendly. 

And that’s just it. It’s pre-season. 

Now, this is the point where I have to admit that even after almost ten years as a writer, it’s extraordinarily difficult to put a positive spin on what is essentially an article saying “okay, calm down guys!”. But I’m going to have to, because it’s my job. So here goes: Calm down, guys. 

Pre-season is about one thing and one thing only – fitness. 

Sure, it’s great to see Harry Kane and Dele Alli finding form once again after a disappointing summer with the national team. It was fantastic to see them playing with the freedom and unity that they formed last season, which they were so cruelly denied by Roy Hodgson for four consecutive games. It’s a welcome relief that they’ve got it out of their system in perfect time. 

But let’s just remember what happened the last time we ended pre-season on such a euphoric note. Two points from eight games, anyone? 

Ultimately, it’s irrelevant whether we’ve just put six past Inter Milan or Leyton Orient – no disrespect to either club.

We kick off our campaign against the blue half of Merseyside on Saturday. A very tough game to call.

Our record at Goodison Park isn’t that great. In fact, to whip out a cheeky stat, Harry Kane’s headed winner on the final day of 2014/15 was our first victory at Goodison Park, in the league, since February 2007. Yep, I was amazed too.

I’d usually opt for a 1-1 draw, as was the case last season. And that’s without the extra factors that Everton possess this time around. 

Roberto Martinez was given his P45 shortly before the Toffee’s final game of the season. There were rumours flying around for a few weeks that Southampton boss Ronald Koeman would be taking the reins, which became a reality in June. The Dutchman, let’s not forget, came close to ‘doing a Leicester’ only two seasons ago, before Claudio Ranieri had even considered the idea. 

This might just be the ideal time to play Koeman’s Everton, as it’s unlikely that he will have had sufficient time with which to implement his style of play. Were we to start fast and nick an early goal, three points and a perfect start to the season might just be on the cards.

The obvious opposing factor is whether the lads have got the end of last season out of their system. It’s all well and good putting a few goals past an Italian giant but, when the pressure is back on and the memories of St James’ Park come flooding back, how will the boys react? 

We’ve all known Poch for long enough to suggest he’ll have taken great lengths to regain the mentality and team spirit we had before that fateful day in the North East, and dare I mention it, before that fateful night at Stamford Bridge. 

It’s tempting fate – so let’s touch every piece of wood in sight – but the fixture list has been relatively kind to us for the opening couple of games, and it can’t be emphasised enough that we truly have to make the most of this opportunity. 

As is the case with Everton, it’s unlikely that Manchester City, Chelsea or Manchester United will hit the ground running under their respective new gaffers. 

I’m not a psychic, so I take zero responsibility if all three begin September with a convincing unbeaten record, but the chances are it’ll take a few months before we know if any of the usual ‘big guns’ will be back in the title race. 

If Spurs can get last season’s heartbreak out of their system from the first whistle, it’ll be the perfect chance to stake our claim as a major force in English football once more. A great opportunity to prove that last season’s heroics weren’t solely down to the big boys having a stinker. 

But Friday’s thrashing of Inter was a welcome reminder of what Pochettino has achieved in his time at Spurs.

Instagram Stories? No. Just no.

Picture the scene. It’s May 2016 and an early morning meeting has been called inside Instagram’s San Francisco Headquarters. “So, how do we compete with Snapchat?” 

It defies belief that the actual, genuine conclusion to this meeting was, quite simply, “you know what? Let’s just copy them!”

Instagram Stories? No. Just no.

Okay, so my initial reaction to this move was somewhat optimistic; choosing to rejoice in the fact that this meant my prolonged avoidance of Snapchat might finally be paying off. Why bother having an account on two apps which are practically the same? 

Although, depressingly, this was already one of my many arguments for not joining Snapchat in the first place – I already have Instagram, which isn’t much different. 

Another of my arguments was that, as a man in his mid-twenties, I don’t want to join any apps that I’ll have to spend significant periods of time learning how to use. 

I mean, we all know how painful it is when an elderly relative joins Facebook and clearly has no idea what they’re doing. But now my beloved Instagram is willing to teach me. What excuse will I have left?!

In other news, it’s come to light how little creativity the big social networks actually possess. 

Flashback to 2008 when Bebo, in a last, desperate bid to prevent their imminent redundancy, chose to copy Facebook’s ‘like’ button in a bid to slam-shut-and-bolt the exit for their rapidly fleeing customers. 

Return to Bebo a year later and they were almost an exact copy of Facebook. 

It turns out if you can’t beat them, you just copy them. 

You’d think, logically, social networks should focus on what makes them unique, and what therefore attracted customers in the first place. Instagram’s latest move appears to already be backfiring, after users have begun using the new Story feature as an ideal opportunity to promote their Snapchat accounts. 

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have long been the trio of apps where I spend most of my spare time, and I’ve always felt that they complement each other nicely. 

All three offer something unique and different – ignoring Twitter’s recent introduction of a ‘like’ button to replace the user’s previous ability to ‘favourite’ tweets. 

But what actually happens if the main social networks stop trying to compete with each other, and instead simply morph into one another? The world was already crazy. Come on, guys, please don’t make it any crazier.