Every summer comes with some transfer rumours that are blatantly made up, but the rise of swap deals this summer has led to some absurd ones.
As soon as a player is linked then it immediately becomes a game of “which player can be linked in exchange”, so Dele Alli to Real Madrid as part of the Gareth Bale deal is the latest example.
The Evening Standard confirmed that he’s not flown with the Spurs team for their Europa league clash this week so that could fuel the rumours, but it appears to be completely unrelated.
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They even go on to quote a source inside the club who was adamant that this had nothing to do with those rumours linking him to Real, although they don’t appear to completely deny that there could be interest.
It would be a strange one for Real because they’ve just brought Martin Odegaard back to the club with the intention of giving him a chance so they don’t need Alli.
It’s much more likely that players are simply being rested due to Spurs having an insane schedule over the next few weeks with a lot of games to be played in a short space of time, so Jose Mourinho will need to be careful with his rotation management.