Dele Alli, following last night’s wonder-goal for England versus France, is very much the flavour of the month.
He’s been wonderful for Tottenham this season having arrived from MK Dons in the summer, but the 19-year-old is a huge Liverpool fan and according to the Echo, Brendan Rodgers badly wanted us to snap him up while in charge.
James Pearce writes: “Rodgers was keen to get him on board but others members of the transfer committee weren’t convinced that Alli represented value for money. There was a feeling that he would need another 12 to 18 months to be ready for the demands of Premier League football.”
The report claims that Liverpool were put off by the transfer fee, but this seems odd considering that Tottenham acquired the starlet for £5m in January 2015.
What makes this medicine harder to swallow is that Alli is a big Liverpool supporter – and has openly claimed as much in the past.
“Gerrard was a big reason I began supporting Liverpool,” he said during his time in League One.
“I remember Istanbul, the FA Cup final, and the game against Olympiakos: Gerrard just scoring amazing goals. Gerrard was a big influence on why I supported Liverpool.”
Eventually, Spurs beat off competition from Newcastle and Aston Villa for the prodigy, while Liverpool were happy with Emre Can’s potential as a central midfielder, having also agreed to take James Milner on a Bosman.
Sadly, it looks like Alli might make us rue the error in the transfer committee’s judgement. How they managed to ignore an 18-year-old who scored 16 League One goals for MK Dons last season is hard to stomach.
Read our thoughts on Liverpool missing out on Dele Alli, here.