Tottenham: Daniel Levy to blame over Dele Alli payment after Monday Night Football cameo
Daniel Levy only has himself to blame after Tottenham officially missed out on a £10million-plus payment from Everton for Dele Alli.
Spurs included various clauses in the agreement that saw Dele depart the club and join Everton as a free agent in January 2022.
The decision to cut ties with the Englishman, rather than look to get a fee of him, was considered a strange move at the time.
Dele Alli wages at Tottenham
From Tottenham’s perspective, they got Dele’s £100,000-a-week wages off their books, meaning they saved up to £12.5million on that front.
As per a report by The Times in October 2018, when Dele signed a new deal with Spurs, he was among the highest earners at the club.
That does not factor in medical bills, which could easily have climbed into and beyond a six-figure sum given his record in the treatment room.
However, Spurs ultimately missed out on landing a transfer fee for the 37-cap England international – even if for as little as, say, £5m.
And what Levy must have thought was a masterstroke at the time to include clauses in the agreement has now spectacularly backfired.
Everton potentially had to pay the Lilywhites up to £40m for Dele if those add-ons were triggered [Sky Sports, February 2022].
Had that been the case, nobody could have any complaints – it would have been a superb piece of business from chairman Levy.
However, Dele’s struggles at Goodison Park mean that Spurs will receive no cash for a player once tipped to become one of the world’s best.
How much did Everton pay Tottenham for Dele Alli?
The 28-year-old featured on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football show on Monday (15 April) to analyse Everton’s heavy loss to Chelsea.
If Levy was watching, he would have been fully aware that by not featuring for Everton at Stamford Bridge, a big payday evaporated.
That is because it is now not possible for Dele to play 20 times for the Toffees before his existing contract expires in the summer.
Only by hitting that figure would Spurs have landed the first of their £10m payouts, but that is now not attainable – let alone the other £30m.
In Levy’s defence, nobody would have expected Dele to make just 13 appearances for Everton between February 2022 and April 2024.
That is indeed the case, though, and now Levy will surely wish he had just taken any sort of upfront payment for the midfielder.
Dele will be free to leave Goodison Park in the summer and pick a club of his choosing to, hopefully for him, kickstart his faltering career.
While it will be great to see the one-time Spurs favourite do just that, Levy will be sick knowing just how much money he missed out on.
In other Tottenham news, Pedro Porro owes Micky van de Ven an apology after what he did in the loss to Newcastle United.
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