How crazy should Tottenham fans go for Dele Alli?

Tottenham fans have officially initiated the Dele Alli hype machine. Whether you fell in love with the 19 year old midfielder after his diving header for goal against Leicester or one of his many nutmegs the affection is undoubtedly there. This begs the question, how crazy should Tottenham fans go over our young starlet at this point?

Most often I'm accused in this space of being a "happy clapper" but this piece may be characterized more as trying to pour cold water on the Tottenham player. I say this even though I've developed a pretty healthy man crush on Alli already.

I'm a sucker for a good nutmeg and if nutmegs were a statistic, Dele Alli would lead the world.

Unfortunately nutmegs and tricks do not make the world go round. If they did, Nathan Oduwa would be Messi. As of right now, Alli's style is ahead of his substance by just a hair. He has a little more flash than substance. The idea that he is a must start player ahead of the likes of Christian Eriksen that I've seen flying around Twitter today need to be tempered quite a bit. I like the lad's potential quite a bit, but the worst thing we could go for his long term success at Tottenham is to rush him into being an every week starter too soon.

Right now, Alli should continue to be involved in the squad no matter who the opponent might be. He is even entitled to continue on as a starter for the time being while Eriksen, Mason and Bentaleb deal with their injury issues. When everyone is fit, he should remain involved, but isn't a lock starter. He should be deployed as a dynamic super sub to preserve his fitness, confidence and emotional wellbeing throughout the long Premier League grind. We don't even really know what Alli's best position is yet. He has functioned at a high level as a No 10, but may very well be better suited as a CDM given our team's current needs.

Now I may have thrown cold water on some fans are spectators for Alli this year, but I am definitely not cooling down anyone's long term ideas. I think he has the potential to be Tottenham's best player. I say that with zero qualifications. I believe Harry Kane is a world class striker, Hugo Lloris a world class keeper and might even put Christian Eriksen in that same category. Dele Alli has the ability to play for any club in the world if his development continues at the current pace. I think he could walk into England's midfield right now over someone like Jonjo Shelvey and should own their midfield in a few years. The phrase the sky is the limit gets thrown around an awful lot, but it rally is true for the precocious Alli.

So go crazy Tottenham fans. Let's not bury our young midfielder this year with crazy expectations though. Let's wait until next season to put him on the cover of our Under Armour ads and FIFA 17.