Everton have reached an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur over Dele Alli, giving Sean Dyche the green light to help the player work towards what would be a remarkable football comeback. Everton originally signed Dele on January 31, 2022, in a highly-incentivised move with Tottenham Hotspur that could have eventually seen them shell out up to £40million in transfer fees but that two-and-a-half year contract expired at the end of last month with the 28-year-old becoming a free agent.
The ECHO understands that under the new arrangement, the Blues – who were seven games shy of the first £10million payment being due under the original deal – are not required to pay a further fee should they offer the midfielder a new contract and although Dele is not yet ready to return to full training with Everton’s squad as he continues his rehabilitation from a groin injury that prevented him from playing last season, the plan is for him to travel to Ireland with the first team group this week.
Dele has not played a competitive game since he was hooked at half-time of Besiktas’ goalless draw at home to Antalyaspor on February 26, 2023, a game that saw former Everton striker Cenk Tosun miss a last-minute penalty, and the injured midfielder’s loan spell in Istanbul being cut short with him returning to Finch Farm in April that year. His last Blues outing was when he came on as a substitute in their 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on August 13, 2022, the same day that Amadou Onana made his debut.
However, after an interview with Gary Neville which came out this time last year, in which he spoke frankly about a number of off-the-field issues he suffered throughout both his childhood and adult life, the Milton Keynes-born player surprised many in April by telling Sky Sports that he is still targeting playing for England in the 2026 World Cup finals, proclaiming: “People will be like ‘he hasn't played in a year’ but that's my aim. I know where my level is.”
While the famous CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland calculated that Dele was the most-valuable midfielder in the world back in 2018, he has not been close to reaching those levels at Everton, failing to complete 90 minutes in any of his 13 matches for the club and starting just once, in the 5-1 thrashing at Arsenal on the final day of the 2022/23 season after Frank Lampard’s side had achieved Premier League safety. Dyche acknowledges that the player has got a long way to go after his dramatic fall but having vowed to leave no stone left unturned when first appointed in trying to cure Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s long-standing fitness issues and being rewarded with 39 games in all competitions from the striker last season after what the Sheffield-born star described as a “factory reset”, the Blues boss is understood to be determined to help Dele as best he can when it comes to getting his life and career back on track.
The duo – who grew up just 30 miles from each other – had several long conversations last season and even bonded over talking tactics, with Dyche saying: “He was very informed and telling me what he thought.” On a separate occasion, the former Burnley manager said: “Dele brought something up I thought was really important and shared it with the players. We were having an honest conversation and he described it really well, this idea of direct play, people presuppose that means kicking the ball down the pitch – no it doesn’t – and he was on it straight away.
“He said: ‘I get exactly what you mean. Can you play forwards as a first thought?’
Outsiders with preconceptions about them both might struggle to pair them as kindred spirits but while Dyche has publicly declared: “Why fight the box you’re put in?”, he is much more layered than his prevailing image of merely being a harsh taskmaster.
Asked last August how Everton deal with the Dele’s situation and how important the pastoral side of the care was, Dyche said: “Well he thought very well. I saw his interview and I thought he spoke very positively and fairly about what we’d tried to support him with, and I think he’s come through it well in his own grounds, not just on any support we’ve given him.
“I remember saying in an interview probably seven or eight years ago I think with Henry Winter, he said: ‘What do you think the future is?’ and I said health and well-being because of the demands of the job, the demands of social media, the demands of modern football life as a player are getting harder all the time. That was my truth then and it still is.
“I think it is a future of what’s going on. I think the health and well-being, the mental well-being is going to be a big part of the future of football.”