Man City ace Kevin De Bruyne and Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah - Dele Alli next? Why rejection by Jose Mourinho doesn't always turn out so bad

Dele Alli has become the latest victim of the Tottenham manager's ruthless axe having been left out of the last two matchday squads.

Described as lazy by Mourinho on numerous occasions in Tottenham's Amazon documentary, it seems the Spurs boss has given up trying to rediscover Alli's best form.

Following Tottenham's 5-2 win over Southampton on Sunday, Mourinho put Alli's omission down to having too many players to pick.

He said: "At this moment, we have too many players in the squad.

"I had on the bench; [Steven] Bergwijn, [Giovani] Lo Celso, [Moussa] Sissoko, [Erik] Lamela… to have Dele, I need to leave somebody else behind.

"And that's the situation at this moment."

Nevertheless, reports continue to link Alli with a move away from Tottenham, especially after the return of Gareth Bale.

French champions Paris Saint-Germain have been named as potential suitors and former Tottenham striker Darren Bent reckons that would be a great move for the 24-year-old.

He told talkSPORT: "It would be superb for him. We know the French league is not as competitive as the Premier League.

"But when you go and play with players like Mbappe, Neymar, Verratti, it's automatically going to lift his levels and make him a better player.

"A change of scenery could do him the world of good and going to that club, he'd be fantastic there."

Could Alli become the latest player to emerge as a star after being rejected by Mourinho? The list is quite long already…

Kevin De Bruyne

It's impossible to imagine a time when De Bruyne wasn't pure class.

The Manchester City star is undoubtedly one of the world's greatest players right now, but Mourinho just couldn't see it back in 2013.

Following a successful loan spell at Werder Bremen, De Bruyne started Mourinho's first Premier League match back at Chelsea and got an assist during a 2-0 win over Hull.

But rather than a promising beginning, that proved to be the peak of his Blues career and the Belgian was sold to Wolfsburg for just £18million in January 2014.

Mohamed Salah

Have there been two better players in the Premier League than De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah over the last three years? Probably not.

And both of them could've been playing for Chelsea if they showed a little more patience.

Salah only made 13 league appearances after signing for the Blues under Mourinho in 2014.

The club had a plethora of wingers at the time, and Salah was unable to break through.

Salah would spend most of his Chelsea career on loan at Fiorentina and Roma, before eventually leaving in 2016.

Romelu Lukaku

A front three of Salah, De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku would be good enough for most teams right now, but not Chelsea in 2014.

Everything suggested Lukaku, a natural heir to Didier Drogba, would be a hit under Mourinho, but the Portuguese was not impressed.

The Belgian played just twice under Mourinho at Chelsea, and despite impressing on loan at Everton in the 2013/14 season, the ex-Blues boss was happy to let him go on a permanent deal in 2014.

Three years after he was sold for £30m, Mourinho's Man United bought the striker for £75m in 2017.

Leonardo Bonucci

Mourinho got a lot of things right at Inter Milan, and he is rightly adored by fans.

However, allowing a 22-year-old Bonucci to join Juventus for a meagre £3.4m in 2009 wasn't the best course of action.

The Italian has since gone on to win eight Serie A titles with Juve, establishing himself as one of the world's best defenders in the process.

Filipe Luis

Luis was great at Atletico before he joined Chelsea. He was great at Atletico after he left Chelsea, too.

But for some reason, it just didn't work out for him during his one season at the club in 2014/15.

It wasn't as though there was much competition, either. Mourinho chose to play Cesar Azpilicueta out of position at left-back rather than pick Luis.

However, in the years that followed Chelsea's title-winning campaign in 2014/15, it became clear that selling Luis was a big mistake.

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Jose Mourinho falling out with one of his players? Well I never…