Everton star Dele Alli has been left in limbo after the Toffees reportedly rejected a proposal from Tottenham to restructure the deal that took the attacker to Goodison Park almost two years ago. Alli spent seven years at Tottenham and played for the club in the Champions League final before joining Everton in February 2022.
Alli became a Premier League superstar during his time in north London and bagged 67 goals and 61 assists in 269 appearances for the Lilywhites. But he fell out of favour towards the end of his Tottenham career following a downturn in form and ultimately joined the Toffees just days after Frank Lampard had been appointed manager.
According to The Times, Alli moved to Everton on a free transfer. But the deal included clauses relating to the player and the team, which means the Toffees may have to pay Spurs a total of £30million. One clause states that Everton must pay their Premier League rivals £10m as soon as the 27-year-old has featured 20 times for the club.
Spurs want to decrease that fee to £8m in exchange for reducing the number of appearances Alli has to make. But the Merseyside club have turned down the offer, although they do hold an interest in tweaking the structure of the deal.
Alli has featured just 13 times for his current employers. He has failed to rediscover the form that made him a star player at Tottenham and spent last season on loan at Besiktas before returning to England after sustaining a thigh injury.
The player, who had surgery on the injury in the summer, revealed during an interview with Gary Neville in July that he had been receiving treatment for addiction issues. And the 37-time capped England international also told the former defender he had been molested as a child.
Alli’s Everton contract is set to expire at the end of the season. And Toffees manager Sean Dyche explained last week that the player was nearing a return to action: “He is going well”, Dyche said. “He is back on the grass with the sports science fitness side, going through football-related drills. But the actual freedom to come and join in with us is not there yet.
“Hopefully over the next week he will start slowly blending in. He still has a bit to go because he has been out for a long time. But to get him back with us would be really pleasing for him because he has been so unlucky.”
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