Dele Alli has revealed former Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho apologised for his infamous 'lazy' jibe at the player - but it was left out of Amazon's All or Nothing docuseries
Former Tottenham star Dele Alli has revealed there was more to the infamous 'lazy' talk with Jose Mourinho.
The out-of-form England international was called out by 'The Special One' for being 'lazy' during a team meeting. In one of the series' most iconic scenes, Mourinho told the player "I understood already that you are a f*****g lazy guy in training" in front of the rest of the squad.
But Alli, 27, has said Amazon failed to broadcast the part where his old manager later apologised for the comment. And despite that development, the 'lazy' tag has stayed with the player ever since.
“I’m glad you asked me about that [Jose Mourinho calling me lazy], so that lazy comment people all love to bring that up, that interview obviously that was on Amazon," the midfielder told Gary Neville on The Overlap. "He called me lazy – that was the day after recovery day.
"A week later, he apologised to me for calling me lazy because he’d seen me actually train and play. But that wasn’t in the documentary, and no one spoke up about that because it was only me and him."
Alli joined Spurs from MK Dons in 2015 and was an instant hit with the north London outfit, but his career has tailed off in recent years. Having joined Everton in 2022, the playmaker had an ill-fated loan with Besiktas cut short earlier this year and is now attempting to revive his Premier League career.
"In the team meeting, he called me lazy but then one on one, I think it was on the pitch he apologised for it," he added. "And I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I know myself – I’m not lazy.
“Yeah, that’s what I mean, what you see sometimes isn’t the way it really is. I think, especially now with social media and all these things, we can really portray something that isn’t real. After that, I think people definitely tried to use that, for some other decisions.
“Yeah, for sure and I think other coaches maybe, for other reasons why I weren’t playing, they stuck to that - lazy one - because it was kind of an easy, easy one to use. And the problem was probably more than that, I think.”
The Milton Keynes native is out to subvert that stereotype following reports he was the first to return for pre-season training at Everton this summer.
Almost 18 months has passed since Alli joined from Tottenham, with the Toffees still yet to pay a penny for the deal. Everton will owe Spurs £10million after Alli makes 20 appearances for the club, but he's still played just 13 times in blue to date.
Dele delved into his childhood and past traumas while sat down with Neville, revealing he was 'molested by his mum's friend' at the age of six. He then started smoking at seven and was selling drugs by the age of eight, giving some critical context as to why he developed a sleeping pill addiction in his adult life.
Premier League fans will remember just how talented the player was at the peak of his powers, wanting to see Alli recapture that form with so much potential still ahead of him.
Having just entered the final 12 months of his contract at Goodison Park, the 2023/24 campaign is a make-or-break season for Alli in the latest leg of a whirlwind career.
