Stan Collymore has claimed that Gareth Southgate should make Dele Alli the permanent England captain.
Writng in his column in the Mirror, Collymore said that it would be the making of Alli, while acknowledging that it would be a controversial choice.
“Let’s forget this idea of passing around the England captaincy and give the armband to Dele Alli now.
“I know he can be spiteful, he can be antsy and that even his manager Mauricio Pochettino had a little pop the other day.
“But this is the boy who needs making into a man and if Gareth Southgate were to make him captain ahead of the World Cup finals we’d see the boy fly.
“Some of you will say the captaincy would take away some of his flare but that’s utter tosh and I’m sick of players being mollycoddled.
“He could lead England into the next two or three tournaments — he really is the outstanding choice.”
OPINION
Dele Alli has always had an impetuous side. He’s one of the country’s undoubted talents, but few would see him as captain material at the moment. No matter who he was aiming the finger at when he was representing England, that’s not the sort of thing you want to see from your captain. Would it be the making of him? Very possibly, but that’s a huge gamble for Southgate to take and one that could backfire massively. We’d be very surprised if Alli was made England captain. And we’d go as far as to say he doesn’t deserve it at the moment – middle finger or no middle finger.