Dele Alli had a record better than Cristiano Ronaldo, now Everton’s forgotten man is off to Turkey

Dele Alli’s career looks set for another downturn, with the midfielder on the verge of leaving Everton and the Premier League for a move to Besiktas in Turkey.

The 26-year-old only joined the Toffees at the start of 2022 yet has already fallen out of favour at Goodison Park under Frank Lampard. 

To many, this potential switch at what should be the height of his career may come as a surprise, perhaps in light of the the way he exploded onto the scene with Tottenham and then the World Cup with England.

For others though there may be a hint of sadness at the slightly predictable nature of it all and it would not be a surprise if Dele’s former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho was among them. 

‘I think one day you will regret if you don’t reach what you can reach. You should demand more from you’, is what Mourinho told Dele during the 2019-20 season via Amazon’s All or Nothing documentary, fearing the attacking maestro wasn’t getting the best out of himself.

Mourinho’s words were not out of spite, and you can witness in his careful, almost cautious, delivery of them that the Portuguese was desperate to coax the form out of the player who at the peak of his powers was among the best young talents in England.

Dele’s rise was rapid from the depths of the lower leagues and he first started attracting attention of the big clubs when he played a starring role in MK Dons’ stunning 2014 League Cup upset victory over Manchester United when his side shocked Louis van Gaal’s outfit 4-0. 

Five months later in the January window he was signing a deal to join Tottenham for the 2015-16 campaign, impressing in Mauricio Pochettino’s side greatly in pre-season against Real Madrid and AC Milan.

Then just 19, he was meant to be a potential breakout star gradually appearing across the season. Instead he came off the bench in just his second game to score against eventual champions Leicester City.

After four matches, Spurs were still winless and he was thrown into the starting line-up to help Pochettino’s side to their first win when they triumphed 1-0 at Sunderland. It was a first-team spot he would not lose for the rest of the season. 

The rise from there was exponential. Just a month after his full Tottenham debut, he also picked up his first England cap coming on for the final two minutes of a Euro 2016 qualifying win over Estonia. 

One month after that, boss Roy Hodgson started him in a friendly with France where he scored and off the back of another excellent display found himself as part of Hodgson’s favoured starting XI. 

By the end of the season he had played nearly 50 times for Tottenham, scoring 10 goals and providing nine assists and was a key player in a team that led a surprising charge for the league title before finishing third – his season highlighted by a stunning goal against Crystal Palace where he flicked the ball over a defender before crashing a volley home from 25 yards out. 

So impressive was his maiden Premier League campaign that there was no surprise when he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year by his fellow professionals.

Another big step followed when he played in his first major tournament at Euro 2016 but along with pretty much the entire Three Lions squad he failed to impress via a humiliating last-16 exit at the hands of Iceland.

The start of Dele’s dip? Not at all, instead he hit even greater heights with Spurs next term, once again proving integral to a title challenge that while only resulted in a runners-up finish behind Chelsea saw Spurs claim their greatest top flight position since 1963. 

Pochettino’s side were unbeaten at home all season in the final ever games played at the old White Hart Lane, and it was of no coincidence it that is also resulted in Dele’s best season – scoring 22 goals in 50 games while producing 13 assists.

Once again he was named player of the year, collecting the award for a second year in a row in a feat that has only been replicated by Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, Wayne Rooney and most recently Phil Foden. 

Alli also turned 21 at the back end of the season, and his comparison with other stars made encouraging reading for Tottenham and England supporters. 

At that age he had scored 26 goals and provided 14 assists in the Premier League after just 63 games, putting him way ahead of the likes of legendary names including Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.

His importance to Tottenham and England continued for the next year, scoring twice in Spurs’ first and still only Premier League victory at Chelsea, and in 2018 he was part of the England squad that reached a World Cup semi-final for the first time in 28 years, scoring in a 2-0 quarter-final victory over Sweden with an excellent header.

Even in 2018-19 he was still a major player for Spurs but the goals and assists were drying up. Just seven strikes and eight assists in total across a season hit by hamstring and thigh injuries – the latter in January 2019 saw him miss the next six league games.

But it also appeared to be the focal point of his decline at Spurs – he never hit top form for the club again, at least under Pochettino.

After an anonymous performance in the Champions League final defeat by Liverpool, his England career came to an abrupt halt. 

He featured in the Nations League against Holland in a semi-final loss before starting the penalty shootout victory over Switzerland in the third-place play-off. It was his 37th cap and right now looks like being his last.

Pochettino and his hated diamond formation made way at Spurs in late 2019 and in came Jose Mourinho, and early results indicated he was what Dele needed. Three goals and as many assists in his first four games appeared to represent a comeback.

It wasn’t to last though. Form declined again and Mourinho grew frustrated with the forward to the point that he told him directly that he was a ‘f***ing lazy guy in training’ in front of his team-mates during a team meeting.

Just over a year on from Mourinho’s arrival, he became a fringe player at the club barely making the Premier League squad and failing to shine in games where he was given rare game time. 

In a League Cup quarter-final at Stoke he was substituted in the second half following a sadly typical anonymous display, leading to him kicking a drinks bottle holder in anger as his downward spiral continued.

The trouble was by the time even Mourinho was sacked by Spurs in April 2021, hopes were fading fast that Dele could recover his best from. Ryan Mason and Nuno Espirito Santo tried in their short spells in charge but with little success.

Antonio Conte’s appointment wasn’t likely to prove a positive for Dele either. A player who had already been dragged over the coals for his lack of training ethic was hardly likely to shoot to the top of the class under the Italian’s brutal physical demands from his players.

In fewer than five years after being marked out as a generational star and being a full England international tracked by Manchester United, Dele Alli was being pushed out the door earlier this year in a free transfer to Everton – such was Tottenham’s desperation to get him off their books.

Many hoped a fresh start away from Spurs could get him firing again, but he never even got going under Lampard. His only start in 13 games came during a 5-1 defeat at Arsenal on the final day of last season and he hasn’t contributed a goal or an assist in a Toffees shirt.

It’s no surprise that with a £10m fee to pay should he hit 20 games, Everton are already looking to offload the midfielder to Besiktas in Turkey. 

It’s not unusual for players to lose their way in their career, but it’s almost baffling the way Dele stock has plummeted in just three years. He’s not just a shadow of the player he was during his halcyon days at Spurs but almost a totally different footballer.

The clinical finishing, adept ball skills, passing strength and confidence appear to have vanished almost overnight and with seemingly little explanation. 

Following the 2018 World Cup, Alli committed himself to a new £150,000 per week deal at Spurs and he was becoming famous outside of the game, appearing at music award shows. 

While this is not exactly a vice, his rapid rise to fame and stardom from relatively little in just three years is a mental test for any human given the riches that come with it and it’s difficult to calculate how much he took his eye off his development as a footballer.

Off the pitch, he hasn’t had the easiest time of it. He had a tumultuous split with his partner, Ruby Mae, last year with some reports even suggesting it was because he played too much of the online video game Fortnite.

They had been together since 2016, albeit briefly splitting up in 2019 before reconciling and then splitting again in 2021. 

Since then, he has been pictured on dates with Pep Guardiola’s daughter Maria and was also rumoured to be on the celebrity dating app Raya.

In May 2020, Alli and Ruby Mae were robbed at knife point in their London home. He suffered a minor facial injury and had watches and jewellery in the incident.

A move to another country may be the only way Dele can get back into any form on the pitch and start rebuilding his career that feels like it has been in a state of permanent decay for nearly four years now. 

Time is still on his side. At 26 years old he can still evolve as a footballer and work his way back to the top. 

But with Spurs and now Everton only too eager to ditch him – the former England international needs to somehow stop his career from sliding into the abyss just as quick as it sky rocketed to the top.