Frank Lampard said he has “great empathy” for Dele Alli over the path his career has taken following the 26-year-old’s move to Turkey.
Dele sealed a season-long loan move to Besiktas in a deal that was confirmed on Thursday. It came just seven months after the England international joined Everton from Tottenham Hotspur and with Dele having been left out of the starting line up in each of the Blues’ first three Premier League games.
It marked the latest step in the career of a player who was once one of the world’s most promising young stars. He led Spurs to a Champions League final and England to a World Cup semi-final before falling from favour at the London club and being allowed to leave for Everton, where he struggled to make an impact beyond fleeting glimpses of his talent during last season’s relegation fight.
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Asked about Dele’s career path following the loan switch, Lampard said: “I do have great empathy for the trajectory of his career in a sense, because it is just clear to see - I don’t have to dress that up in any way.”
When talking about Dele, Lampard has often stressed the importance of players working hard in training in order to achieve success on the pitch. Continuing that theme, he said: “I have to say he really does need to understand the relation of training and focus at the highest level, to what that means to performance. That is my personal opinion. And I’m not saying anything there that I wouldn’t say to any player, it’s not just the Dele story, I would say it to any player because it’s the only thing I know.
“And I wasn’t a saint, but I actually know on a personal level what training can do and focus can do, and that’s something he really has to take on board. Because I think if he can take that on board, then it can be not just a great thing for him, but for the team-mates around in the squad that he’s in. He’s at that point. That is the test for him now.”
On the importance of working hard to be successful, Lampard continued: “He has to do it - every player has to do it. It is too elite, this sport is too elite at the top end, if you want to be in that bracket, or to be influential at a club like Everton, or Tottenham where he was before, or anywhere. It is just too elite. Every player has to have a version of what is best for them and what gets the most out of them, and not every player will do the amount of training that a certain player does, but the focus has to be there and if you don’t have it [at this level] it is really, really tough - and those are the rules.”
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