Everton update emerges as Dele Alli development expected in next 36-hours – Sky Sports
Dele Alli is making a permanent return to the UK on Saturday (8 April) after the Everton midfielder’s Besiktas loan was cut short, according to Alan Myers.
The former Tottenham man has been frozen out from the Turkish side by manager Senol Gunes and it appears he won’t even remain in the country until the end of the season.
Where the 26-year-old fits at Goodison Park remains to be seen, with his contract reportedly close to £200,000-a-week [Daily Mail, 4 April], but the loan move appears set to be over as a practical matter after the Easter weekend.
Reporting on his personal Twitter account on Friday afternoon (7 April) Sky Sports man Myers wrote: “My Source in Turkey Serdar Saridag tells me Dele Alli will return to the U.K. tomorrow”.
Seridag himself posted on Twitter: “Dear Dele Alli, thank you for your service so far. You’re making a permanent return to England tomorrow. I wish you good travels.”
Ended in disappointment
What happens now is anyone’s guess but it seems like a vanishingly small prospect for the one-time England star to be thrown into the Everton squad again.
The club are on the hook for £40million to Spurs if he plays enough times for the club, with the first £10million after 20 appearances [Mirror, 1 February 2022], so on top of his apparently huge wages that is a figure that the club can ill-afford to pay.
He may have more than doubled his game time in Turkey compared to half a season on Merseyside last year, but the fact that he is expected back this weekend when there are weeks left of the season shows how well that his ultimately panned out.
It may be that he just isn’t motivated by top level football any more, and he wouldn’t be the first player in history to burn so brightly in his younger years before fading away.
In most other lines of work that wouldn’t seem like a wild development so perhaps it shouldn’t in this one, but either way Everton are going to need to work out something if they don’t want to be carrying millions on the wage bill that they don’t expect to get any return on.
It is emblematic of the transfer dealings under the Farhad Moshiri reign to take expensive gambles that don’t pay off, and while the financial constraints have curtailed the ability to do that on such a scale, the club have still apparently managed to saddle themselves with a major cost even on a move that was a free transfer in the first instance.