Everton will have a brutal decision to make this coming summer regarding their January signing of Dele Alli.
The Toffees have often been big swingers in the transfer market, acquiring several middle-name players for big-name fees across the past few seasons. Players such as; Richarlison, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Allan, and Andre Gomes, among others, have all arrived for fees in excess of £20million in the past few seasons, according to Transfermarkt, but haven’t exactly lived up to the price tag this season. In fact, the blue half of Merseyside have spent over £500million in transfer fees since current owner, Farhad Moshiri took over in 2016, as cited by MailOnline.
Upon taking over at Goodison Park, Lampard followed suit and swung big again in the January transfer window, acquiring out-of-favour Donny van de Beek on loan from Manchester United, as well as forgotten-man Dele Alli from Tottenham, in a deal that could rise exponentially should the player reach a number of performance-based milestones.
Dele will likely be of the greatest concern to Everton fans come the end of the season, with his deal being permanent and potentially costing the Toffees £40million should the player tick a number of performance-related boxes in Everton-blue this season. Luckily for Everton, this will likely not happen. The former England international played just 169 minutes across six matches in the Premier so far under Frank Lampard and has since been an unused substitute for the last four matches.
Though this will mean the midfielder will likely fall short of the 20-game requirement, in order for Everton to fork out another £10million for the player, according to Fabrizio Romano, it will undoubtedly make moving the midfielder at the end of the season a difficult feat, regardless of Everton’s final position when it’s all said and done.