Everton transfer news: Besiktas president rules out Dele Alli return
Besiktas president Ahmet Nur Cebi has admitted Everton midfielder Dele Alli won’t be returning to the club this summer after he failed to meet expectations.
Alli spent the season on loan at the Turkish giants but has returned to Goodison after a frustrating time in Turkey which ended in a serious injury.
The England international only played twice for the Toffees this season before making 15 appearances in Turkey, where he scored three goals.
And in an interview with Bein Sports in Turkey [8 June], Cebi admitted Besiktas will not be pursuing another move for Alli after he hinted in April that a free transfer was possible.
He said: “Our contract with Dele Alli is over.
“He was a player we were very excited about when he came. He won’t come back. We didn’t get what we expected from him. I hope he recovers as a human.”
Everton’s problem now
Besiktas’ heavy reluctance to return to the table for Alli is of no surprise at all given his rapid decline over the past year. The Turkish outfit clearly don’t want to deal with his off-field issues which means it is certainly Everton’s problem now.
If Everton manage to get Alli off the books in the summer transfer window, it would be a tremendous job well done. However, even that looks incredibly difficult right now, given the serious injury he suffered which may take him some time to return to full fitness.
With the midfielder not yet reaching his quota of appearances for the club, which would mean they would have to pay the full £40million transfer fee to Spurs, a permanent transfer away from the club makes complete sense but that now looks impossible.
Everton may have no option but to fully release him from their books which in that in itself presents some difficult hurdles to overcome.
It is increasingly unlikely we’ll see Alli in an Everton shirt, or even another football shirt for that matter, but the Goodison Park books won’t look clean at all if he is still an Everton property when the season kicks off again in August.