Why Everton would stand to benefit from signing Dele Alli
According to Football Insider (h/t Football.london), Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti is keen to sign out of favour Tottenham star Dele Alli. Along with Alli, Harry Winks and Paulo Gazzaniga have also emerged as targets for the Toffees.
It remains to be seen whether a deal can be worked out in January or if they have to wait till next summer and the bigger question would be whether they can get all three of them.
Profile
The 24-year-old English midfielder started his youth career at City Colts and moved to MK Dons in 2007. Climbing through the youth ranks, he made his first-team breakthrough in 2013.
He went on to make 88 appearances for the club, registering 24 goals and 15 assists. In January 2015, Spurs signed him up but allowed him to return to MK Dons for the remainder of the season, back on loan.
In August 2015, he made his debut for Spurs against Manchester United. Since then, Alli has gone from strength to strength. He was named the PFA Young Player of the Year in consecutive years, 2016 and 2017. So far, Alli has featured in 229 games for Spurs, scored 63 times and assisted another 56. (h/t Transfermarkt).
He was also a prominent part of England’s squad with 37 appearances and 3 goals to date. Nowadays, he finds himself out of contention for the national side.
Alli would add quality and depth to Everton’s midfield
At just 24 years of age, Alli finds himself at crossroads in his short career. For some odd reason, he finds himself on the fringes of Mourinho’s team as he has played a grand total of 7 games amounting to 325 minutes in all competitions. A host of new arrivals in the summer did little to help his cause.
Everton did some good business in the summer to revamp their midfield adding the likes of James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure. The trio has slotted in well and contributed to the team’s early-season blitz. Now the problem is they don’t have quality players to cover for the first-team players.
Alli’s addition can bolster Everton’s midfield by adding to the numbers and quality. The Englishman may have fallen out of favour at Spurs but there is no doubting his qualities. Not so long ago, he was one of the best midfielders in the league right at the centre of Spurs’ meteoric rise under Mauricio Pochettino.
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Everton should try to sign Alli irrespective of whether they can get Winks and Gazzaniga. He would slot in well into Everton’s midfield or attack and give competition and cover for James Rodriguez.
