Dele Alli failed to get off the bench in Besiktas's 1-1 draw with Gaziantep on Christmas Day.
The Turkish Super Lig is one of the few top flight leagues to continue as most domestic competitions across Europe grind to a halt. The Istanbul giants travelled to mid-table Gaziantep on Sunday afternoon as the England international, who will have never played on Christmas Day before, was treated to a festive fixture.
Unfortunately for the 26-year-old it wasn't a Christmas to remember as he spent all 90 minutes on the bench. It comes as Dele was ruthlessly hooked after just 30 minutes in Besiktas's last fixture and also booed by the club's home fans.
The Black and Whites were 2-0 down in the cup clash against second-tier side Sanliurfaspor after only half an hour, with a potential shock on the cards. By this time, manager Senol Gunes had seen enough and hooked both Atiba Hutchinson and Dele Alli.
And if that wasn't humiliating enough for the former Tottenham midfielder, he was mercilessly booed by angry fans on his way out. As it happens, the substitutions were justified as Besiktas fought back to clinch a 4-2 win for the Turkish giants and heavy favourites.
Dele responded a couple days later with a pointed Instagram post, nodding towards his difficult evening the other night. In an Instagram post fuelled by emotion, Dele showed himself holding a football tight to his chest in training. Accompanied by purple love heart and football emojis, he penned: "You saved my life. That's why I will always love you."
While spirits remain strong off the pitch, his confidence will likely have been further knocked on it by watching his side play out the 1-1 draw. Joao Figueiredo opened the scoring for the hosts before Lionel Messi's World Cup nemesis Wout Weghorst levelled the score four minutes from the end.
The Dutch star hit headlines during the World Cup when the Netherlands were knocked out by Argentina in a fiery clash. The now champions were 2-0 up before the Burnley flop came on to score a late brace - the latter coming in the 101st minute of normal time.
The clash, which involved a couple of light dust ups and as many as 17 yellow cards, went to penalties in which Argentina came triumphant before going on to win the whole thing altogether. After the clash, Messi was conducting his post-match media duties before suddenly breaking off to yell "fool" at someone.
That someone was none other than Weghorst, with Messi furiously blurting: "What are you looking at fool. Get back there."
Weghorst, though, has since insisted he was only going to pay his respects. He said: "I wanted to pay my respects to him after the game, but he wasn’t up for it. Well, I take it as a nice compliment that he now knows my name. It means I’ve done something right."
The 30-year-old has put both that incident and his opening spell at Burnley behind him. After netting just twice in 20 appearances for the Clarets last season, the forward, on loan in Turkey, has struck 8 times in 16 games.
