Antonio Conte not worried Dele Alli could haunt Tottenham on return: ‘Players go down when they leave me’

Antonio Conte has played down the chances of Dele Alli coming back to haunt Tottenham on Monday, saying players normally “go down, not up” when they stop working with him.

Dele is expected to get a rousing reception when he returns to Spurs with new club Everton, five weeks after his deadline-day move in January.

Spurs allowed Dele to join the Toffees on an initial free transfer, although the deal could eventually be worth as much as £40million, and it remains to be seen if they will live to regret offloading the midfielder, who was once rated as one of the finest young players in Europe.

Conte, however, says he cannot remember a single one of his former players making him pay for selling them and suggested he had given Dele every chance to prove himself.

“I don’t remember a player that when he went away, came back with a great spirit of revenge,” Conte said.

“Honestly, I don’t remember one. During my coaching, I always try to be honest with the players and give all the players the possibility to show me that they deserve to play. I don’t remember a player that had their revenge with me. What happens usually is that when players went away they went down, not up.”

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