Como head coach Cesc Fabregas took aim at Dele Alli after his player was sent off just 10 minutes into his debut for the club.
Former England international Alli signed for the Italian side on a free transfer in January and got here onto the pitch with 81 minutes on the clock in Saturday night’s Serie A clash against AC Milan.
It was his first appearance for any team in almost two years, last playing in February 2023 while on the books of Turkish side Besiktas.
Nevertheless it was a short-lived return as his cameo appearance became a nightmare, shown a yellow card after catching former Chelsea midfielder and current Milan star Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the back of the ankle.
Alli was initially shown a yellow card but after a VAR check, that was upgraded to a red.
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Como were trailing 2-1, desperately chasing a winner with Fabregas turning to the previous Tottenham star to search out the goal that would have secured some extent for his side.
As an alternative, the previous Arsenal captain was left to rue a ‘grave’ mistake from Alli.
Fabregas had little sympathy for his player, describing the incident involving Loftus-Cheek as a ‘tackle that hurts to observe’ in his post-match press conference.
In a post-match interview with DAZN, Fabregas insisted it was ‘not a mistake we must always see from a player of his experience’.
Fabregas also brutally suggested Alli ‘perhaps didn’t deserve his opportunity’ having only trained with the squad for a few weeks.
‘It was at that moment when Milan went 2-1 up and Sergi Roberto was meant to come back on, but I’d prefer to offer him one other two weeks to coach so he may be ready to start out against Empoli,’ Fabregas told DAZN.
‘Dele Alli is a player who can rating goals, he perhaps didn’t deserve this chance because he has only been working with us for 2 weeks and has lots to enhance.
‘It’s a grave mistake, one which we must always not see from a player of his experience.
‘It was a transparent red card, there’s nothing to be said about that, he left the team right down to 10 men during a vital moment once we were pushing for 2-2.
‘That’s essentially the most negative thing about this evening, but we keep going.’
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