Dele Alli: 'Raheem Sterling criticism is worst I've seen'

"That was my first major tournament and Raheem's a year older than me. I don't know how I would have handled all the heat that they were putting on him.

"Raheem was playing first team a lot sooner than I was and was a much bigger name before I started coming onto the scene.

"I already had this picture of him from what I'd seen and when you meet him he's one of the nicest people I've ever worked with and he's so focused and dedicated. But you hear and read all this s**t about him."

Having faced consistent media criticism over a number of areas of his life, Sterling has recently been praised for taking the lead in calling out racism and is one of the hot favourites to be named player of the season.

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