Tottenham snubbed chance to sell Dele Alli for ‘over £80m’ – with ex-England international now a free agent & fighting for his future amid injury struggles at Everton
Dele Alli is a free agent fighting for his future, but David Pleat has revealed Tottenham had the chance to sell him for “over £80 million”.
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WHAT HAPPENED?
Back in 2016-17, Dele enjoyed the most productive campaign of his career to date. He found the target on 22 occasions across all competitions for Spurs and was considered to be one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in world football.
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GettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE
Tottenham had snapped him up for just £5m from MK Dons in 2015, after finally heeding transfer advice from former manager and director of football Pleat, and passed up the chance to make a healthy £75m ($98m) profit on that investment.
WHAT PLEAT SAID
Pleat, who also filled a role as scout during his time in north London, has told FourFourTwo: “[My role at Spurs in recent years has been] consultant and scout. I’m very pleased with one or two players who came in where I had an influence, one being Jack Clarke. None of the managers handled him well. He can play.
“There was Dele Alli, too. I took Franco Baldini to watch him and he was on his phone the whole time – he didn’t even watch him. I’ve got six reports on Dele over a period of two years; they should’ve reacted after my first two. Eventually they heard he was going to Aston Villa or Newcastle. They rang me and I said, ‘Well, fancy that? Serves you right. You have to get hold of him.’ They did the deal really quickly and I persuaded the chairman that £5m wasn’t too much to pay.
“At one stage they could have sold him for over £80m, then things happened. I’m sad because I saw him at 16 and he already had that stature about him, and he could play, too.”
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GettyWHAT NEXT FOR DELE?
Dele has endured a humbling fall from grace of late, with the 28-year-old England international currently a free agent after seeing his contract at Everton expire. He is still training with the Toffees, in the hope of earning fresh terms, but has made just 13 appearances for the Premier League outfit since joining them in January 2022 – with his last appearance of any kind in an injury-ravaged run coming in February 2023 during a loan spell at Besiktas.
