Several rumours linking Dele Alli with a move away from White Hart Lane have cropped up in recent weeks. French outfit Paris St Germain were the first to be linked with the England midfielder, and they were reportedly ready to pay in excess of £50 million for his signature. While Dele Alli quickly rejected those rumours, he has since been linked on numerous occasions with Spanish outfit Real Madrid. Barcelona have also emerged as potential suitors for his signature in the last few days.
Fuelling the tremendous amount of interest, former Liverpool forward Stan Collymore believes that Alli should consider playing for such foreign clubs in order to hone his skills even further.
The comments from the football pundit are unlikely to go down well with the Tottenham supporters, who have taken to Alli as well as Harry Kane despite his MK Dons roots. Alli has been in sensational form and this could also be one of the reasons behind the numerous transfer rumours. The brace against Chelsea in the 2-0 win helped Alli become one of the top scorers in the league with 10 goals. He is just a couple of goals short of Alexis Sanchez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Diego Costa – players who are seen as immensely important for the respective teams.
Collymore believes that playing for top foreign clubs like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, or Barcelona will help Alli improve even further. Moving to such clubs may not be a problem for the 20-year-old at this young age according to him, as Alli has already shown that he can mix it with the best in the business.
As quoted by the Mirror, he said:
“Let me be very clear about this: I want the best English players to play in England. But I also want our best players to go and learn from the very best in the world.
“And if that means Dele Alli going and playing for Bayern Munich, Real Madrid of Barcelona in the next two or three years, then I’d gladly swing by his house and drive him to whichever city he fancies. He could play for Bayern, Barca or Real tomorrow, and they would hone his skills.”
After having scored seven goals in his last five games across all competitions, there is little doubt that Alli cannot be classified as a one season wonder. He was a major reason behind Spurs finishing in the third place last season. Now, the club are in a similar position, albeit just seven points behind table leaders Chelsea and just two behind Liverpool in the second spot. Opposition manager Antonio Conte was in high praise of Spurs after the loss at White Hart Lane, and he even went on to suggest that Spurs are title contenders this season.
In the past, the club did sell players like Luka Modric and Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, but they may not repeat the same with Alli since Champions League is expected to be a regular feature for the White Hart Lane outfit from now on.
Modric moved to Madrid for a fee of £30 million, while Bale became then world’s most expensive player by joining the Spanish giants for £85 million. Alli is valued at around £50 million right now, but this could shoot up quite drastically if he continues in the same vein of form.
