CONFIRMED: Everton sign Dele Alli from Tottenham

Everton have made a shock late swoop to sign midfielder Dele Alli from Tottenham.

There was little talk of the move earlier on deadline day but things moved swiftly and the Toffees have snapped up the England international on a two-and-a-half year deal. A loan deal was initially mooted but the signing of Anwar El Ghazi and initial arrival of Donny van de Beek used up their Premier League quota.

So, incredibly, the Blues managed to negotiate a free transfer, with a £10m fee due when he has made 20 appearances - which will certainly be next season since the Blues only have 18 league games left this season, and the versatile player is cup-tied having featured for Spurs in the FA Cup already.

Speaking about joining the Toffees, Alli said -

“I’m delighted to have signed for Everton, a huge club with a great fanbase and history.

“I’m eager to get started and can’t wait for my first game in an Everton shirt.

“I’m looking forward to helping the team and the opportunity to work with the new manager Frank Lampard.”

There is some absolutely fantastic creative accounting going on behind the scenes to make this happen because the Blues do not have any spending money to spare with the sale of Lucas Digne balanced out by the purchases of Vitaliy Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson. There is the matter of the England international’s wages which are reportedly about the same as van de Beek and Digne so that would have to be accounted for.

Not handing the player a new contract certainly minimises the risk of the deal since he will see out the remainder of his current deal with Spurs. Not only that, if indeed he does have an impact at the Toffees and the club does have to pay the £10 million due to Tottenham, it will be a snip at that miniscule fee for a homegrown player.

Alli will be leaving North London after seven years at Spurs, with his career at Tottenham stalling and the player at 25 still has plenty of time to getting things right again with a end of the year World Cup coming up.

In all, he has featured 269 times for Tottenham, scoring 67 times and picking up 61 assists in that time. Dele also has 37 caps for the Three Lions with three goals in that time, having gone to both the World Cup and the European Championship with England also.