Charlie Davies praises Dele Alli for opening up on his childhood trauma & mental health struggles
u el about everything he had to say there? It’s emotial just seeing thatid just because therere a lot of things that people have to deal with and they keep inside cause it’s viewed as weak if you talk about it or ifou seek help. And you know, I think it’s so courageous of him to co out and talk about some of those things. me, athas ugh as it com. It’s crazy, too, because there was a the was a moment where Dele Ali w at the top of his me. I mean, the way that we were, we’re
speakg about him as a player and rember the goal against Crystal Palace. I mean, it w it was incredible. And that sort of fall from grace, I think a lot of people were asking the question, what happenedWhat happened to Dele Ali? And n we know and it’s horrifying. And you said it, Charlie. I mean, just a masve amount. The amount of courage id talk about what he waactually dealing with, what’s super interesting here is how f inEngu excuse me, the lture has progressed wreen can tk about these things openly andpuy decades it was all aut
being tough, getting stuck in being a man, bleeding muddy shirt and just not complaining. And there if you can hone the bt
England but in other places in thworld where we expect men to beough and gritty and not show emotion, Alp that that weakness and I think now we’re realing that maybe that’s not the way tgo. Yeah. Not just n. These are otlls.ea Ftble I do think it also shinea light on the responsibility of the staff and the coachg. You know, you played at a very high level. I obviously didn’t, but the thingou hear a lot from players is. Oh, it’s ke a it’s a family in that locker room. We’re all brothers. It’s a family sometimes in
faly you have to put your arm around mebody. It’s not just, Hey, you’re not doing it on thefieldg it on the fieldYou know, when I was a manager of a sal team, one of the fir tngthllous enomnn performing, it’s not about your get your numbers up. It’s find out why they’re not performing to that expection. So seeing this and seeinwhat you said and let’s call it what it is, tic masculinity, which yes, can be overused, but what stops somebody from saying is, yeah, I’m in pain, yeah,’m hurt. And self-medicating is because they feel they’re not
going to get support when they say it. So toe at the point where now the majority of usre saying, I wish we would have own earlier, I wish we would we would be ab to support someone like Dele Ali and getting the outpouring of love aasveosivst. Mong fwa. But the thing he touched on is when they’ not performing, figuring out what’s up, yeahit’s when they are performing to, t to have that nnection and that support ile you’re doing it because it’s easy say, Oh, this guy, something’s up with this guy. But you’rnot willing to open.
vy players who were dealing with things off the field, whether ‘s family issues, health issues, and they’re neveroing to allow you in because you fl like at this point, I’m t going to open up now and become ak. I have to just keep putting my head down and keep focusi a jt say it’s nothing. I’m just I’m not in good form. Was it like at in France, Sweden, in Denmark? Yeah. I played with some me players who were deangit a lot of heavy things. One omy former teammates in France waswl difficult marital issues and ove
to trning one one day we’re practicing and police officers showed up. Jeez. And they handcuffed him and we’re ke, what happened? All the way to the training stadi from his ple?e asd to mtie parts signsnd street lamps. Street lampsfences and w we l could see he was visibly drunk at prtice at and s that’s just e player that I cathkf. mean there is a lot of instances wherelayers are keeping big secre and they’re they’re dealing with lot of serious iue whether it’s children at home that aresi issues, asking for money or, y know, it’s a
it n be very difficult and dnting to be a preson aletoemind you there are human beings. I ow. Exactly. Especially at a young age and during your bringing, you’re not given the tools or at least you’re surrounding your context.est her mentally or learn how to deal with these things. And tn you’re thrust into the limelight as a professional footballer, suddenly ming a lot me an prab t rt oth people that are surrounding you a you have you have to deal with , right? So there’s a huge amount of presse that comes with that. And I
jus give him my heart goes out tDele Ali and I give him so much credit because he actually said to he, he’s coming forward with this because he wants to help peopl that are going through sometng similar. So I think all of our heartar
