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Wind the clock back to the end of the 2016-17 season and Dele Alli was riding the crest of a wave. Two fantastic seasons at Tottenham Hotspur had marked him out as a special talent, surely destined to be one of the greats of the game, for club and country.
Wind the clock forward to the present day and Alli finds himself out of favour under Jose Mourinho (after initially enjoying a brief renaissance) and struggling to justify his place in Gareth Southgate's England squad for Euro 2020.
So where has it all gone wrong for a player that had been marked for stardom? In this article we look back at Alli's time at the club and why his performance level has regressed so much.
Also Read: Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur: Should he stay or should he go? | Premier League 2019-20
2015-16
Alli signed for Spurs in January 2015 before being loaned back to Milton Keynes Dons for the remainder of that season. In his final season for the League One club, he impressed with his eye for goal from midfield, scoring 16 goals in 44 appearances as the team secured promotion to the Championship.
Big things were therefore expected of the youngster but nobody had quite anticipated what an impact Alli would have in his first season in the Premier League.
During that debut season, he would make 46 appearances for Spurs, scoring 10 goals, contributing 11 assists and playing over 3,000 minutes in a remarkably consistent season. He was heavily involved in all aspects of the game, averaging 33 passes a match with a completion rate of 76%. He averaged 2.2 shots and 1.7 key passes across the season.
His form saw him rewarded with his first England call-up, while he was also voted PFA Young Player of the Year by his peers. He also featured in the PFA Team of the Year and won BBC Goal of the season, for a stunning volley against Crystal Palace.
2016-17
If things had been good for Alli in his first full season at Spurs, then things were about to get even better as he established himself as one of the best young attacking midfielders in the world.
This season would see him play 50 games across all competitions and score 22 goals for the club. However, it was his form in the league that was perhaps most impressive. He made four more appearances than the previous season, only missing one game, but scored eight more goals, totalling 18 for the season. He netted one goal in the FA Cup and three in the Champions League.
The midfielder also claimed 13 assists as his attacking partnership with Harry Kane continued to thrive. His passing was more accurate and he completed 80% of his passes in the Premier League compared to 76% the previous season. His shots per game increased to 2.5 while his fitness and consistency continued to be remarkable as he completed over 4,000 minutes of action across all competitions.
Alli's form was once again recognised by his peers as he was voted PFA Young Player of the Year and included in the PFA Team of the Year for the second season in a row. He was also Premier League player of the month in January 2017 after scoring eight goals in six games, which included three consecutive braces against Southampton, Watford, and Chelsea.
Possibly the only downside of his season was a red card for a reckless tackle in the Europa League last 32 against Gent, which was the first real sign of indiscipline in his career.
Alli also continued to be a key part of Gareth Southgate's England team as they successfully qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
2017-18
The start of Alli's decline was evident in the 2017-18 season as his performances which, until that point had shown rapid improvement, now started to show signs of decline.
In all competitions, he would match his total of appearances, once again reaching a half-century of games as Tottenham competed on four fronts. However, his goalscoring contribution was now beginning to decline. He scored 14 goals that season but only 9 of them came in the Premier League, significantly lower than the 18 he had managed in the previous season.
It would be unfair, though, to suggest that Alli wasn't still a key part of everything good about Tottenham and one area where he excelled once again was in the number of assists as he improved on his tally the previous season to claim an impressive 17 across all competitions, 11 in the Premier League, two in the FA Cup and four in the Champions League.
His lack of goals can be explained by a decline in the number of shots Alli was taking per game in the Premier League. In the previous season, he had averaged 2.5 a match but in 2017-18 this dropped to 1.9 a game. Despite his rise in assists, the quality of his passing was now also starting to show evidence of decline, dropping to 77%.
Southgate remained a big admirer of Alli's talents and selected him for the 2018 FIFA World Cup where England reached the semi-finals of the competition. He struggled to reach peak fitness for the tournament after picking up a knock in England's opening fixture against Tunisia but still made five appearances, scoring a crucial goal in the quarter-final victory over Sweden, before England were knocked out by Croatia in the semi-finals.
2018-19
If the previous season had suggested that Alli's talents might be on the wane, then his performances in 2018-19 undoubtedly confirmed that.
It was quite possible that the sheer volume of games that he had played for MK Dons, Tottenham and England were starting to take their toll as he struggled with niggling injuries for the first time in his career, making just 38 appearances.
This had an effect on his productivity at the attacking end of the pitch as he would score only seven goals all season. Just five of these came in the Premier League and two in the FA Cup. This lack of goals, particularly in league competition can be attributed to the continued decline in his shots per game which now stood at just 1.6. Alli wouldn't score at all in the Champions League despite Spurs making it to the final.
The number of goals that Alli was creating also dropped, registering only 8 assists across the games he played. Still a reasonably impressive statistic but down significantly on the 17 he achieved the previous season. His pass completion did rise back above 80% but he was now registering just over one key pass a game.
His drop in form was also starting to have an adverse effect on his international career, and the emergence of young talents like Jadon Sancho, Callum Hudson Odoi, Mason Mount and Harry Winks, and the continued excellence of Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford meant that Alli had real competition in Southgate's starting eleven for the first time. However, he was selected for England's participation in the Nations League finals.
Alli did not feature in the starting XI in England's defeat against Holland in the semi-finals only coming on in the second period of extra-time as England lost 2-1. He did play the full game in the third-place play-off as England successfully overcame Switzerland on penalties.
2019-20
After the disappointments of the previous season, there has been some improvement in Alli's performances in 2019-20 even though he has continued to fail to hit the heights of his earlier career.
At the time of writing, he has made 33 appearances this season in all competitions and has scored 8 goals meaning he has already surpassed his total from the previous season. He also has five assists.
His season has also been one of upheaval at his club, with the manager who signed him, Mauricio Pochettino leaving the club after a poor run of form at the start of the season.
Alli's own poor run of form ultimately played a part in the Argentine losing his job and when Jose Mourinho was announced as Pochettino's replacement he asked him, "Are you Dele or Dele's brother?"
This loss of form had led to Southgate dropping him from the England squad for the first time and Mourinho's motivational pep talk did result in a brief return to form for Alli as he scored four goals in three games in late November and early December. However, that form has once again tailed off.
Alli has also found himself in trouble off the pitch after joking about the coronavirus outbreak on his social media channels. He also reacted petulantly to being substituted against RB Leipzig and was then left out of Mourinho's starting eleven in the club's following league match against Chelsea.
It is clear that Alli's career is now at a crossroads. Will he get his head down, work hard and fulfil the rich potential he highlighted in the early seasons of his Tottenham career? Or will his career plateau and be mired in the frustrations and petulance that have followed him on and off the field for the last couple of seasons?
The decision really is up to Alli.
