"I just want to be happy playing football. Working with Lampard, and the great players Everton have got, is a great opportunity for me to do that. I'm excited to go there, show the fans what I can do, and help the club as much as I can."
Those were the words of Dele Alli when Everton officially announced his arrival in the early hours of February 1 of last year. It was a bold move by a club in transition. Frank Lampard had only just become Blues boss, there was no sporting director in place and a flurry of late January activity was intended to halt the slide towards a relegation fight.
Just like with Lampard, Dele’s time in the spotlight on Merseyside featured promising flashes but ended within a year. Unlike with the former boss who tried so hard to protect and support the deadline day signing in public, Dele is due back at Finch Farm and Everton, and Lampard’s replacement Sean Dyche will have a potentially expensive puzzle to solve this summer.
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There was no initial transfer fee for Dele’s switch to Everton from Tottenham Hotspur but the deal could reach up to £40m if a host of clauses are met. Many of them seem unlikely but, having played 13 times for Everton, a further seven appearances would trigger a £10m payment to his former club. For a club attempting to drive a smarter recruitment strategy, financially constrained by its proximity to spending limits and desperate to continue to shed high-earners from its wage bill, Dele’s looming return from a loan spell at Turkish side Besiktas in the summer presents a conundrum that will need solving.
The plan was for things to turn out different. Dele joined with Donny van de Beek, who made the temporary switch from Manchester United around the same time, to offer Everton the prospect of a fielding a side containing one of Europe’s most promising young central midfielders alongside an England international who had starred in a World Cup and played in a Champions League final. Yet both saw their roles limited, Van de Beek through injury, and neither were able to prevent the Blues slipping into a relegation dogfight.
Yet at the height of that battle there were signs from Dele that he could still have an impact in the Premier League. It was Dele who brushed Timothy Castagne off the ball and delivered the cross for Richarlison to score a crucial late equaliser against Leicester City at Goodison Park. And his introduction at half-time in the penultimate match against Crystal Palace changed the game. With Everton 2-0 down and facing the prospect of an anxiety-ridden trip to Arsenal on the final day, Dele won the free kick that led to Michael Keane’s goal and played a key role at the back post for Richarlison’s equaliser before Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored so memorably to confirm survival.
There was a sense of hope that the summer escape from the pressure and intensity of the relegation fight could rejuvenate a host of Blues players who had struggled throughout that campaign and, when the players returned for pre-season, Dele was given opportunities to impress. He was involved in each of the club's tour games in the US and, while a glaring miss against Minnesota United was the most notable moment of his two performances, that a player who had once been so dangerous going forward was getting into threatening positions again was seen as a positive sign. This optimism was then further boosted when he scored twice in the next friendly, at Championship side Blackpool. In that game he repeatedly drove at the hosts' defence and was a constant nuisance. His first goal saw him finish from close range after a Vitalii Mykolenko pull back - sparking a celebration that saw every outfield team-mate congratulate him. He then deftly finished past Blackpool keeper Daniel Grimshaw from a Nathan Patterson cross.
Lampard was pleased. He said: "They are goals I want to see from him. It was a trademark of his as he broke through at Tottenham for a number of seasons, and we all know what has happened in between, but if he is going to get back to the best of what we want from him he has to arrive into those areas and score those kind of goals. He also has to work on his general play and be part of the team and understand what we are trying to do. I saw some good things there."
Lampard sought to stay positive, praising the player's “consistency in his work” over the summer. There was always a clear refusal to get carried away but alongside it existed a belief that, if Dele and Everton could get it right, the club had a player whose talents could fuel a rise to a greater future. There was a sense that Dele had a point to prove following the path his career had taken and the Blues hoped he could harness the desire to prove his critics wrong and rebuild the reputation he once had of being one of the most talented attacking midfielders in football.
Against this backdrop, one theme that emerged in Lampard’s comments was of the importance to him of players fighting to improve behind the scenes. Days before the first game of this season, against Chelsea, Lampard appeared hopeful Dele had become aware of what he needed to do to be a top player. He said: “The first thing Dele needs to do is find a consistency in his training and that is something I have spoken about - I’m a big believer in training at a level every day that is there to improve you, or your luck or whatever way you want to look at it. For me, full pelt in training is non-negotiable, and I think Dele needs, needed, to understand that is important for me and for him, and in pre-season I’ve seen that.”
There was, however, then a degree of surprise when Dele did not start the Chelsea match. There was no perfect solution to the nightmare scenario that had unfolded for Lampard - on the eve of the campaign a “freak” Dominic Calvert-Lewin knee injury combined with the sale of Richarlison and suspension of Salomon Rondon left him without a recognised first-team striker. Dele was seen by many as a potential false nine but instead Anthony Gordon took that spot. With injuries elsewhere, Everton were engulfed in striker and central midfield crises and yet Dele was consigned to the final 30 minutes off the bench. He did not get on at all against Aston Villa seven days later. Even with Everton chasing the game and Abdoulaye Doucoure picking up an injury, Tom Davies, new signing Amadou Onana and the newly-available but still far-from-fancied Rondon were preferred. Dele was again unused from the bench as the Blues again laboured in attack against Nottingham Forest and then, days later, joined Besiktas.
Dele’s diminishing involvement from his brace at Blackpool to failing to get on the pitch for the last two games of his spell, both of which Everton were chasing, marked a month-long fall that was the latest setback in his career.
Lampard would never allow himself to be drawn on what was happening behind the scenes and, like with each of his players, would always seek to be supportive and protective of Dele in public. Remarking upon the departure he had sanctioned, Lampard said: “I do have great empathy for the trajectory of his career in a sense, because it is just clear to see - I don’t have to dress that up in any way.” Lampard did maintain the importance of training and focus as those themes continued within his comments on Dele: “I have to say he really does need to understand the relation of training and focus at the highest level, to what that means to performance. That is my personal opinion. And I’m not saying anything there that I wouldn’t say to any player, it’s not just the Dele story, I would say it to any player because it’s the only thing I know.
“And I wasn’t a saint, but I actually know on a personal level what training can do and focus can do, and that’s something he really has to take on board. Because I think if he can take that on board, then it can be not just a great thing for him, but for the team-mates around in the squad that he’s in. He’s at that point. That is the test for him now.”
Just over six months later Everton are preparing for Dele’s summer return with his loan spell at Besiktas heading toward a difficult conclusion. The Turkish club look unlikely to trigger an option to buy the former England star and so it will fall on Dyche and those around him to decide what next for a player who carries a significant financial commitment but who so many want to succeed.
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