Gareth Southgate Insists Spurs Star Dele Alli Has Learned From Middle Finger Video Storm

Gareth Southgate has insisted that Dele Alli has been warned about his behaviour after the England star was banned for one match over his middle-finger gesture.

The Tottenham midfielder will sit out the Three Lions' World Cup qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday after he was hit with the punishment from world football governing body FIFA.

In quotes attributed to Southgate in the London Evening Standard, the England manager revealed that he had talked to the 21-year-old about the incident and how he needed to act much more professionally in the future.

Southgate remarked: “I’ve discussed it with Dele [Alli] throughout. He recognises his responsibilities and how things will be viewed and how his world is changing in terms of the attention on him and the spotlight on him.

“He won’t do it again, that’s for sure. It is an experience that he will have learnt from. The things he does on the pitch in terms of his creativity and the way he plays are a result of his character.

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“With that character sometimes you do things immediately and think about them after and all of these experiences will make him better as he goes forward.”

Alli was caught on camera during England's 2-1 victory over Slovakia in September as he raised his middle finger in an apparent show of disrespect to the referee.

Both Alli and Southgate immediately stated that the gesture was aimed at former Spurs teammate and good friend Kyle Walker instead as they looked to see off any criticism over the action.

However, FIFA threw out the Football Association's case concerning the above - despite saying that they didn't consider the sign to be aimed at the ref - and opted to ban Alli a one-game international match ban for the gesture and fined him £3,850 for the "offensive and unsporting gesture".

Alli has courted controversy with his club recently too after he was booked for diving in Tottenham's 4-0 victory over Huddersfield Town last Saturday.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino, who has had to deal with Alli's temperamental nature in the past couple of seasons too, called on his star to learn from his continually poor attempts to deceive match officials in the wake of that clash.