Dele Alli returned to Finch Farm this week to resume light training as he bids to mount another comeback from a year’s worth of injury problems and set-backs, although it remains to be seen if he can gain sufficient fitness to play again before the end of the season.
The 27-year-old underwent a second surgery to repair a quad muscle late last year and is ready to step up his recovery back on Merseyside after spending the past few weeks in London, working to an individualised rehabilitation programme that has allowed him to stay close to his support network in the Capital.
Dele hasn’t played a competitive game since first sustaining the injury on duty for Besiktas a year ago and he last turned out for the Toffees in May 2022, his only start for the club to date following 12 substitute appearances.
Given the complicated nature of the deal that brought him to Merseyside from Tottenham Hotspur in January that year when Frank Lampard arrived as the Toffees’ boss, it’s not clear if he will ever don Everton colours again, particularly as it now emerges that any new deal he signs would also trigger a payment to the North London club.
Having largely failed to convince the coaching staff at Finch Farm that he was either fully fit or fully engaged, it was agreed that Dele should move to Turkey for the 2022-23 season to give him time and space to rediscover his best form.
However, after seeking help in the United States last spring, he publicly revealed in an interview with Gary Neville the mental health and substance addiction issues he has been battling and which were so destructive to a once-stellar career for Spurs and England and which prevented him from ever really impressing for Everton in his first half-season with the club.
“I was in a bad cycle,” he confessed. “I was relying on things that were doing me harm and I was waking up every day, winning the fight, going into training showing that I was happy, but inside I was definitely losing the battle and it was time for me to change it.”
Feeling as strong as ever psychologically, Dele has been kept away from the pitch by his injury problems but, as Paddy Boyland reports in The Athletic, the end may be in sight as he returns to the grass to begin light running and repetition exercises to build his strength before he can resume ball work.
In his comments to the media since his interview with Neville on The Overlap, Dele has given every indication that he wants to reignite his career at Everton whom he credits for giving him so much support over the past 12 months but the player’s fitness is only part of the story.
The deal reputedly arranged between then Everton chairman, Bill Kenwright, and Tottenham owner, Daniel Levy, that brought Dele to Goodison, initially for free, involves staggered payments to Spurs once certain appearance milestones are reached, with £10m due once he plays his 20th game for the Blues. However, Boyland reveals that a lump sum would also be due to the London club should Dele sign a new contract at Goodison Park when his current deal expires.
With the saga over Everton’s ownership still not resolved and, by consequence, the club’s ability to finance any payments or new contracts up in the air, it’s not clear whether the Blues will have the leeway to retain him on his current terms, thought to be worth six figures per week, unless they can be renegotiated.
That has increased the need for the two clubs to resume the preliminary talks that were reportedly held last year to restructure the deal so that it incentivises Everton to play Dele, provides the player stability and continuity, and enables him to get back onto the pitch.