A Dele Reborn Really Would Be Like a New Signing

It was brave of Dele to give the interview and this openness could be the making of him revitalising his career. He had an awful childhood and I would imagine it would be wise for him to continue to have therapy to work through his childhood traumas. At least, it looks like he's recognised some of the triggers now for his self destructive behaviours.

He seems genuinely hungry to get to a similar level as before, but as someone who doesn't seem like a trainer in the Alex Iwobi mould, he's still going to have to convince Dyche to give him 7 games in the Prem to audition for a full time role at Everton.

It's vary rare nowadays for managers to give talented players, like mavericks from days of old like Stan Bowles and Rodney Marsh to get a pass in training. De Bruyne isn't a very good trainer apparently but he seems an anomaly in todays game, so Dele is going to have to work like he did when he was MK Dons, before the money and fame. It's not going to be easy.

There's the worry that if we pay the £10m fee he'll be out of contract in the summer anyway, but there needs be an agreement in place that if Everton put their faith in Dele, he repay us by signing a new contract as a free agent.

As I say, a lot of what if's. He's got to be given the 7 competitive games, and then show some of the old magic for us to warrant paying out £10m. £10m will be a steal though, if can get anywhere close to how he used to be.

He began the interview with a strong and unbidden expression of gratitude to Everton for the club's support (and we are a helluva club!), and he talked about several long and comfortable conversations with Dyche, a manager he had never previously met. He clearly has connected with the club on an emotional level.

He also made it clear that, contrary to what we all believed, he has not fallen out of love with football -- he had fallen away from himself, and is on the road to recovery, but his face lit up when he talked about playing footy again.

And he immediately dismissed Neville's question about getting back to what he was, setting his jaw and saying that he wants to surpass that level and play beyond it. The determination was clear.

Now I am certainly what a former denizen of this space used to derisively refer to as a "happy clapper" -- in fact I wear the barb as a badge of honor -- but I genuinely believe that, given an extended opportunity, he could become once again a football force, and that he wants to do it here.

There will definitely be some ups and downs to navigate -- chemical dependence and mental challenges are not overcome all at once, or in a steady way, and I expect to see some backward steps along the way. But after watching this interview (twice), I'm eagerly reversing myself on the possibilities of his future... and ours.

Levy should be asked, in the best interests of Dele, that the £10M should be paid at the end of the coming season. Another solution, could be to pay £3-£5M at the 20 game stage and the rest at season's end.

Employers have a duty of care towards their employees. It appears to me that Everton are holding up their end. Maybe Levy may do his old boy a big favour and let him recover in an environment he clearly trusts and enjoys. Fingers crossed.

Whatever happens, I wish Dele all the best and thank him for his bravery in talking publicly about his many demons.

Business mode: Sort the financials out in our favour and make it work with a hedge on him relapsing in some way!

Fan mode: what if he actually became better than before; where does that put Everton?

Romantic mode: imagine the story of he comes good and Everton rise with him — goosebumps!

Rarely if ever works out like that, but dare to dream…

Regardless, when we thought our lives are tough, there is always someone like Dele going through tougher things that cannot be imagined from our perspective.

I personally just want to see Dele overcoming his inner demons for good, be happy and content for the rest of his life. Whether he rebuilds his career on the pitch, that is only icing on the cake.

We've all known there's a player in there but, so far, we've only seen glimpses of it. In the 45 minutes when he replaced Gomes v Palace, the season before last, he was instrumental in turning the game which made us safe.

If he can replicate that over a sustained period, then we really have a player on our hands. Let's hope he's soon fit and able to show us what he can do.

The first is the possible targeting of him by other teams' supporters. Remember Robbie Fowler?

The second is more close to home. We have a large group of very vocal fans who essentially go the game to vent and abuse. Goodison is not somewhere you want to be when the chips are down and your passes aren't coming off.

As an attacking midfielder, Dele needs to take risks to perform. He will not be given a free pass because of a difficult childhood.

For his own sake, I think he needs to get away from the Premier League completely, unfortunately.

And Jack #3, exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps the club could approach Levy along those lines and quietly let certain trusted journos know they've done it? Given the outpouring of support for Dele, surely even Levy couldn't say no.

10 League goals and 5 or 6 assists would be a massive improvement on anything we've had from midfield in the last 2 seasons. He's a far superior No.10 than Doucouré.

Good luck to him regardless of what happens on the pitch but, with us being Us, I wouldn't be surprised to see him play really well this season then leave on a free to Chelsea or some other Champions League club!

In my view, we should never have involved ourselves with Dele. Obviously I wish him well and hope that he can get back to full fitness. But it should not be our problem and – if the "deal allows it" – we should send him back to Tottenham.

The constant changes in managers at the club have left us with little sense of team structure, with apparently some players being paid vastly more money than other more effective players in the team.

I had hoped that we might see some evidence that our latest manager would be given time to build a team with some homegrown talent given every encouragement to succeed. I cannot believe that it is worth taking the chance on 'Hollywood Signings' who do little to create any sense of team ethic.

Play badly and we pay Dele allegedly £100k a week for doing nothing. Play well and we can't play him without triggering a fee that we can't afford!

If it was Kenwright, he should be sacked for this mistake alone.

Like others i’m glad he’s facing his demons and seems to be in a better place but football at this level is ruthless. The club pay him 100k a week and 10mil is a big hit in out budget sadly.

A five minute YouTube clip helped ruin him hopefully the Gary Neville interview helps save him.

Let's say Dyche likes what he sees in training, plays Dele, and his form starts returning to Dele Mk. 1. Everton pay out £10M, £20M, £30M for a player dozens of better teams will want and is available for free at the end of the season.

Now Dele might be grateful to Everton but he will have his agent in his ear, telling him not to waste his second chance in a relegation fodder team, when he could and should be playing in the Champions League.

As it stands, it's just not worth it for Everton, it's lose-lose. The only way it could work is if Everton say to Dele, 'We'll give you a chance, swallow the payments to Spurs, but, you must add an optional year onto your contract where Everton can opt to keep you for another year'. That way Everton can at least command a decent fee for him at the end of the season.

Also, sometimes though it's just about doing the right thing, even if it costs you, maybe especially if it costs you and you can't really afford it, because it's the right thing to do.

Everybody counts or nobody counts and we may as well shut down EitC to save money too.

It's good to hear the club have been supportive though.

Unless he plays out of this world and bags some goals in just a few games that is, but we've allowed undue optimism and sentiment to overrule sound judgement before.

If Dele doesn’t get back to form, well he’s off their wage list. It’s was genius and we lapped it up.

As others have posted: Dele doesn’t belong here: he’s either washed up and thus no use. Or he’s excellent, too expensive and deserves a bigger stage.

Sadly, this won’t work out for us

Romantic mode + Realistic mode: Dele gets to even 90% of where he was and makes it stick - in come the "bigger" clubs with inevitable results.

Truth is, Dele would never be here if it were not for his troubles. I hope he gets to where he wants to be in himself and we'll just have to see from there.

The one thing they have in common, they're both narcissists, wankers and put themselves first before fans of their clubs.

I think you said it more succinctly than me in that last paragraph.

Some things are more important than football.

Whatever comes at the threshold of the contract is another consideration. We should make clear to him the complications financially then put our arms around him and help him get it right. We may be disappointed with his ultimate repayment but we will have done the right thing financially. This short term disappointment would be well outweighed by the enhancement of Everton’s image.

It’s early, I could be dreaming.

BUT

Maradona was never going to work at Napoli either

I wish Dele well but his recovery as a top player will not be done overnight.

We could even now contemplate getting a fee for an improving player in the January window before we have to pay Spurs depending how long it takes him to play those 7 games and how he does in them. His wages though could also prove a problem for any interested clubs.

Only Kenwright could have saddled us with such a deal. In the circumstances he should have been free like Erikson. After all Spurs would still have got his big wages off their books.

We have had major trouble scoring goals recently and he could alleviate that situation. If we finish five places higher then that is equal to the money we owe that 'massive club' called erm, is it Spuds ?!

Plus if he is doing well and other big clubs come a calling, then by association means EFC are doing well and will not be looking over our collective shoulder at the end of the season.

Glass half full for me

I wish him the very best and am so glad he has spoken out and sought help, but I’d be astonished if this works out well for Everton.

As I said on the other thread, I wonder whether both clubs were aware of some of the issues that Dele had, so agreed the sort of pay as you play deal to get Dele away from the environment at Spurs/London and see if he could re-kindle his love of the game.

Seems from reading the reports that Dele was looking forward to playing under Frank Lampard. Did Dele regard Frank Lampard as being of a similar mindset to Pochettino?

I also read an article about Dele when he signed for Everton I have added a link below for those who have the inclination and time to read it. Apart from the usual stuff I knew, a couple of paragraphs stood out...which sums up where best to play Dele to get the best out of him.

'His impact came as a support striker making late runs into the penalty box. He was combative and cute so could play deeper but that was not his main strength.

Over time, Alli has been deployed further and further away from the opposition goal, even used in a midfield two, where the responsibilities in the build-up play put greater emphasis on other aspects of his game. It has become hard to remember what made him so good.'

That just about sums him up. Reading some of his stats, it seems the further away from goal he is, the less of an impact he has...

Link

Whilst I appreciate that at the end of the day, it is important to put Everton first, the idea of playing Dele for a further 6 games, see how it goes, and then if not working out, loan him out in January 24, probably wouldn't be useful to Dele's well-being.

Another point....Wasn't there a rumour that Spurs would get a certain percentage fee of any transfer fee Everton received if they were to sell Dele (I seem to remember 25% was mooted) - that would make sense to Levy with the original structure of the transfer?

Playing side - an option in place for EFC being able to extend his stay by 12 months seems the best solution. That works so if he does well then we can sell him or look to renegotiate another contract in 12 months or just keep him for 12 months.

Spurs - you can’t expect them to just be nice guys. A compromise if we believe in him if we pay you £5m no matter what or £10m at end of season might get Levy to renegotiate.

In a perfect world, if Dele shows his true worth and gets playing time at Everton triggering at least the first payment to Spurs, then all sides could win.

However, we can probably only win if Dele extends his contract with us, so we can sell him to Chelsea for a fortune so that he gets Champions League footie with Pochettino and Levy gets his penny's worth.

If Dele were to agree a longer term deal on reduced wages it’s theoretically possible, but he’s in no real state to be having those kinds of discussions right now either. He needs to be taking things day by day right now. For himself and the club.

Think Levy (and Everton) could easily offer to alter the clause to say “£10m if any further contract is signed”. That way we can free the lad to play and worry about future later on. Levy gets a WIN here as it is the only change they have of getting £10m anyway. It increases it anyway.

Doubt such common sense will prevail. In all likelihood we won’t see anything of Dele till the new year, and if he’s still about between Jan-may then we might get a few cameos until the trigger figure is reached.

afford the big gamble, we need consistent performers, this season is going to be a tough one..

“ Addiction to sleeping tablets is widespread, much more than people realise," he said. "There is also widespread use of caffeine stimulants for matches.
"Players are pretty wired during games because they want to give themselves a legal buzz for when they are playing - but then they cannot get to sleep at night.
"They are therefore prescribed sleeping tablets and the cycle goes on."

Imagine if the diabolical media actually did some digging on this and found out what their beloved Bingo was up to. Don’t hold your breath though, for as long the agenda is part of their narrative, everything is fine.

I wish Deli all the best. Hope he can rediscover his form. We could do with a bit of luck for once and getting a former top pro back up to speed would be amazing.

As things stand, he has about 6 or 7 games to rescue his career at Everton. After that, then we incur a £10m liability for a player who could walk for free at the end of the season.

We've already paid Dele Alli huge sums for 18 months of pretty much zero contribution.

If player wants an Everton career, then he needs to dial down his wage demands to offset our £10m liability - and give us an option for a further 1 or 2 years on much more modest wages.

If he does that, he gets some stability in back in his life and the opportunity (which he seems to want) to become a real player again with a Premier League club.

If he doesn't want that, then he can continue to make a non-playing contribution to get the remaining year of high wages from us. However, after that, no-one will ever take a risk on him and his only chances of a decent wage are probably in Saudi Arabia.

It would be brilliant for both him and club if he can work on something like this and deliver. I do really feel for the guy and fear for his future. What he has been through is probably so destructive that it would be absolutely extraordinary if he could come back from it. Here's hoping.

(Lol)

4 years and a limited number of Premier league minutes and the abuse his body has taken will mean a long path to recovery of fitness let alone the mentality issues.

It would be great if we could dream of a world class player again but we have to be realistic.

All the stars are aligned against EFC. It will take a miracle for it to happen but you never know.

Based on that deal, 18 months ago, we've paid Levy zero.

If in the end, we have to pay Alle's final season's wages, we'd have laid out a total of about £12.5 million. Bad enough, fair enough.

Until we compare it to what we paid for players before they even posed holding the Shirt or cashed an Everton paycheck:

Maupay - £14 million (Still owed £7.25 million)
- B&HA got one over on us.

Gomes - £22 million (Already paid approx. £22 million.
Still owed approx £6 million)
- Barca got one over on us.

Godfrey - £20 million (Still owed £7.8 million)
- Watford got one over on us.

Etc.

So, yes, we're basically giving Alli a giant lottery ticket win. He's not the first. But as far as bum signings go the last few years, his is waaaaaaay down the list.

Levy had to leave it up to Everton whether Spurs got ANY money for Dele (Which, again, is zero). That's how desperate he was to get the boy out of his club.

We took on a known risk with a potential huge upside. It didn't play out so far and likely won't. But Levy didn't have our "pants down".

Be good to see the players after some Dyche training sessions.

The other players mentioned didn’t didn’t work out but weren’t damaged goods in the same way Dele was (pls excuse the phrase but you know what I mean).

The other players simply haven’t been as good as expected or been in poor form or unlucky with injuries etc.

Dele had an addiction and mental trauma. Levy would have at least known about the addiction. He got his problem over to us (huge wages) and stands to make money if Dele comes good. It was superb business acumen by Levy and he definitely tickled our tummies

Why else would a player worth about £100m a few seasons prior be given away for nothing!?

The terms of the deal are ours to live with.

Thanks for the correction.

Decribing Dele to a "T"

He no doubt hasn't been "as good as expected".

For sure, he's "been in poor form".

Also, he's been "unlucky with injuries". Recovery right now from surgery needed from a piece of bone breaking away from his hip.

And I have to say, I'm impressed that you so willingly just waived off £90 million+ wasted on just 3 players:

Maupay - Who has to be the slowest forward in the Premier League.

Gomes - Must be the slowest midfielder in the Premier League.

Godfrey - a poor centre-back who can't play football.

£90M+ right down the spine of the team. You're a more forgiving supporter than I am.

But, somehow, £12.5 million lost on a player who meets all of your "Oh well, shit happens" financial reasoning, amounts to Kenwright having his pants pulled down?

You and I are just going to have to disagree.

No more to it than that.

The thing that gets me every time is that these players were all decent when they first got to Everton. Still had that desire and fire in their belly. Then the rot sets in.

The rot is all due to the philosophy of managed decline that Kenwright has bestowed upon the club. They aren't all, all bad players – it's what the club has become. The players realise it, couldn't really give a fuck cos the club doesn't set winning anything as a target, and you get these half-arsed performances.

Rooney has highlighted this. It's why I'm so vocal about that despicable parasite called Bill Kenwright. He's ruined Everton, and ruined it all for fans. The only hope is getting rid of him, and any trace of his being here. And everyone and anyone associated with him.

Then we move forward as Everton Football Club once again. It would reinvigorate the playing side instantly.

He has to do something by appearing to be doing something about it. It is down to whether he will be able to deliver on his promises, which as yet have not been put to the test.

He does look better and seems to be in good sorts. The process is acceptance, letting go of unrealistic goals and, the all-important chestnut, time. He is saying he is at the acceptance stage. His goals are the next step. I think there has to be adjustments in his contractual agreement for the next stage. so that realistic goals can be set. Then no fixed time limits, which are unrealistic anyway in such a situation.

There are a few hurdles on his journey going forward if he is real and going to deliver on what he is promising.

Yes, over the years we have had more than our fair share of duds, one who would be hard to beat was a player who joined us from Portsmouth for £10,000 in 1948 when I first started watching the Blues. His name was Albert Juliussen, he never played many games, he was unfit to play more than he was fit, I think we got our money back, one of his ailments was varicose veins!

Takes some beating that even if he was getting on a bit, he'd been around various clubs not to mention being in the Second World War for 6 years – although the varicose veins might have kept him out of that.

Are you saying Everton don't have to pay Spurs any more money no matter how many games Dele plays for us?

Yes, there is a difference in your two posts and one of the big differences is that Levy most probably knew that Dele was going downhill regarding his form but didn't know the the revelations Dele has just come out with now.

We all know Levy is seen as a hard-hearted so-and-so when it comes to getting the best he can for his club, and himself as co-owner, but possibly might react differently to it now with Dele's future career at a crossroads.

'How can we afford to gamble on an experienced goalscorer when we already have two who just might come good?' is the message I'm getting over this Dele weekend.

I can't see Dyche buying into this one so get ready to clear the decks… again!

But it isn't Levy's fault that Everton are so skint that they can't afford now to honour their side of the deal they struck with their eyes open about the state of the player. It's not Levy who is stopping Dele Alli from playing, it's Everton.

When we signed Dele people said it was a great deal as we paid nothing upfront. He had been a great player a few years earlier and if it had worked we’d have been laughing — had we not spent all our money so couldn’t pay it anyway. Now we are saying he might come good and we expect Spurs to drop the fee if he does so. But if he is back to the old Dele then surely Spurs will be thinking “we let him go too cheaply” they are hardly likely to say “well let’s drop the comparatively small fee to benefit a club who decieved us by taking on a dent they can’t afford.”

it’s just not.

He’s been out of rehab for 2 weeks, he’s made a docu that sounds like it’s been forced on him for whatever reason , everybody’s on a high about his self redemption and rightly so, but let’s see where we all are in 3 months, 6 months,

12 months, give the lad some time to recover, if he ever does recover.

Give him time.

The people who can solve it are the same three idiots who formed it. Can’t be done without agreement of ALL THREE. Levy is the one holding the main blocker and if he agreed Dele would be free.

If he won’t come to the table and negotiate the only options are a) Dele cannot play b) Dele gets farmed out on loan again. That’s it. Any notion that Everton will or can pay a £10m fee for one season is insane. It isn’t happening.

This should be about what Dele wants and needs now. If he wants a loan that’s easy. If he wants to stay and play then the other two fools need to sit down and work out a sensible compromise.

Secondly as others have mentioned, there is no way Levy is going to do us or Dele any favours.

So surely our best bet is to renegotiate with Dele himself.

I'm not clever enough to work out if it's feasable, or legal, but I'm thinking something along the lines of:

If we trigger the $10m clause then Dele moves to a pay-as-you-play contract for the remainder of the season with Everton able to trigger a two year extension (perhaps on more favorable / stable terms for Dele) at the end of the season.

So then Dele has 6 games (plus 6 weeks of training) to prove to us he's worth the $10m. We reduce the damage if it all goes wrong after those 6 games (he only gets paid if he plays). Then if it all goes well, we either get him for at least another couple of years, or have managed to guarantee a transfer fee if he goes on to better things.

Dele can absolutely make it back if he wants it bad enough.

To be nice? Because there's a moral obligation to let Dele Alli play football again?

If that's the case, then surely we (as his employers) now have a moral obligation to forego our much needed new striker in order to let Dele Alli pay. That would free up £10m quid.

Daniel Levy said goodbye to the obligation in relation to Dele Alli when we took him off Spurs' hands, in full knowledge that it was a very risky deal - albeit with some upside if the risk came off.

It's our problem.

If that happens I am also quite certain that Dele will pay the club back in spades because when you are recovering from addiction “doing the right thing” is the foundation stone of recovery.

And yet some people seem to think Levy will give a fuck right now by finding a streak of altruism?

Yeah, right.

Levy is someone who far eclipses Kenwright and Moshiri in every salient aspect of professional football chicanery.

Spurs under Levy (and his financially savvy backers) get a new stadium and success way beyond us in recent years, whilst we incrementally plunge to even lower depths with those two still at the top.

But then people seem to be overlooking Team Alli also. He's not just a player, he's a business in his own right. As appreciative as he might be for Everton agreeing to him going into rehab (and what else would they realistically have done?), he's not going to sign a deal now. His value is diminished as footballer after years of underperformance.

There are still huge question marks as to whether he can be a top level player again.

And similar sized question marks about his contractual future.

The former is a big challenge. The latter is practically insurmountable.

For me I just wish him the best personally and forget the idea of him being a top level Everton player.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting Kenwright isn’t an inept narcissist. But what I am suggesting— since apparently he negotiated the deal — is that in this case his other trait of being a pathological liar trumped Levy. How could an EFC chairman not know our financial situation when agreeing such a deal? He materially mislead Levy despite him and his CFO Grant Infles knowing— assuming they can do simple arithmetic— into agreeing a deal we could not afford to honor. Much as it pains me to portray the slithering so and so as such, in this deal Levy was a victim.

Levy must know he’s *not* getting it, so by clinging on to a false belief he is, then the ONLY thing he’s doing is restricting Deles options of getting well. Maybe he doesn’t care about that, and we can all differ in our views of him if he doesn’t. Personally I think he’s a tit for it.

The simple solution is for ALL THREE parties to sit down and work out what’s best for the lad. If it’s staying here and playing, why can’t Levy just agree to change the clause to say “payment to be made on any future contract between Everton and Dele”?!

That way Levy has a chance of getting something, and Dele can be left alone to play or not play instead of being farmed out to Saudi or Turkey or being left to rot.

I can't see why Spurs would waive / delay the £10M to let us have our cake (the chance of a rehabilitated Dele Alli) and eat it (a new striker). How stupid would Levy look if that came off for us and we finished above them?

Might Spurs have a better chance of getting that £10M if they give Dele Alli another 20 or 30 games before it is triggered? Possibly, but the only reason he's playing for us on these daft terms is that they concluded 18 months ago that he's finished. Although what we have seen this past week is absolutely heart-rending, it's not really changed the position on the pitch.

If one of the 3 parties involved is going to take a financial hit to allow Dele Alli to play football for us, it should be Dele Alli.

As per my comments #45 (and similar comments
by Jamie #75), Dele Alli has the option of dialling down his wage demands with us to offset our liability to pay £10M. He could play for free – and buy himself a shot at first-team football with us.

He's already had huge sums from us for doing nothing for 18 months (and from Spurs for doing nothing of note in about the last 3 years for them). If he's serious about becoming a player again (possibly with an extended contract with Everton) then he can take a financial hit to earn it.

If he'd rather just collect the big Everton wages for another year, then he can still play, but on loan rather than for us. It's a sad end to the story but because no-one (including Dele Alli) will want to lose money over this, that loan is the likeliest option for him now.

1) Dele's career as a top flight player will effectively be done if we don't play him, as no other team will take a chance on him.

2) Spurs will not receive a penny if we elect not to play him.

3) Everton will suffer financially if we have a £100k-per-week player in the squad who never plays.

That looks like the basis for a negotiated compromise that benefits everyone.

Let's face it, we'd accept given we can't afford to take the risk on playing him and paying for him. And we can't afford to pay him and not play him.

His market value is still his market value.

We're screwed on this deal. So are Spurs. Dele is the one with the options. And he doesn't need us. He's got a £100k-a-week contract.

Something along the lines of Dele drops his wage from £100k to £50k pw and Tottenham get £5M not £10M, after 30 games instead of 20.

Anything less and Everton won't take the financial risk. Dele will hopefully get healthy these next 5 months, then be off on a full or subsidised loan somewhere in January.

It seems like Alli has been lost for a while and he probably came to Everton because of Frank Lampard rather than thinking everything through.

To be fair to Bill Kenwright, The Russians never invaded Ukraine until the February, meaning that Everton might have been able to pay this staggered contract if the player would have been a success.

This saga has got me whistling that old children's nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice in my head.

The £10M (and some of the other add ons) were anti-embarrassment terms. In the very unlikely scenario that Dele Alli turned his career around with us, then these payments stop them looking like mugs. At the moment, they don't look like mugs.

It's unrealistic to see them as holding out for that money; they're not. They moved on 18 months ago. And unfortunately, 18 months into a 2½-year deal, Dele Alli has not turned his career around and is currently injured. So, although the interview is heart-rending, I can't see why Spurs might think there's now some prospect of getting the £10M.

And given Dele Alli's playing record for what must be getting on for 5 years now, it's extremely unlikely he will come good for us even if he agrees to play for free. He'll know that too – which is why the loan then free transfer next summer remains the likeliest outcome.

As for the sleeping pill addiction, I think all our squad members from the last two seasons should be tested as they all played like zombies.

These players are manipulated and treated as commodities from a very young age.

They grow up in a bubble, detached from real life and with high expectation placed on young shoulders.

Like you say, the vultures circle.

We can but hope.

It's either a loan spell or a year of being frozen out of the squad.

Fingers crossed there's a loan opportunity that suits the loanee and player. One that allows us to pay half or less of his wages would be the best possible outcome for all parties.

If we can get him back to being just half the player he was at Spurs he's definitely worth the £10 million fee. He will also feel like he owes Everton for helping him.

We should not pay Spurs any more money because we can't afford to do so with the associated risk involved. I don't think that would be something that Levy would expect but we must involve Dele in the conversation to be fair to him and, of course, ourselves.

I hope he does become like a new signing and brings the forward drive we really miss.

I know we are economically challenged but I'm really surprised by the lack of urgency here.

I suspect his thinking is that, if we pay the £10M to Spurs, he will treat it as us signing a striker and not bother. That's if he is intending to do something on that score, which I doubt anyway.

Barrowclough was charged with recovering the watch.

Approaching Fletcher, he started with "I have been authorised to offer up to Five Pounds for the return of the watch."

Fletcher's response: "Well, the quicker we get to £5, the quicker we can get this resolved."

You might be frustrated not knowing how much we have, but if that means our "suppliers" (clubs from whom we are buying players) don't know and we tell them we are skint and play hard ball – we might actually have the money for more players than if we blow it all on just 2 because they know how much money we can afford.

Just remember how we paid £45M for Sigurdsson because Swansea knew Koeman wanted him and Moshiri had deep pockets.

Of course, many people will have doubts about his mentality. Clearly, Spurs don't want him back. I'd like to suggest that we keep him and that we have a sensible discussion with Spurs to review the payment terms to a considerably longer period. If they have any "heart" they should understand that now is a critical time to give Dele some encouraging support. We need the money for new transfers just now and this would help us with providing him a chance to show that he has turned that corner.

John @ 99. Perhaps you have not been traumatised in life so far and find it hard to understand how one can/will keep such hidden, even feeling shamed at something that occurred. I think Dele made a good attempt at explaining this.

Generally, trauma doesn't really manifest when things are going well, it may have resurfaced in his consciousness when he started having a bit of a form dip or was under some stress elsewhere, from there it could be a very quick steep descent.

Who knows, everybody reacts differently perhaps he had techniques to compartmentalise that, and those mechanisms stopped working.

It’s a massive gamble though for a player who hasn’t played a decent game for 3 years, and clearly ain’t in a great place. As much as I don’t like the idea, Ross Barkley on a free would offer a safer bet…..and that tells you the risk level.

Still think the most reasonable approach of all is either;

a) Levy changes clause to be paid on any new contract with Everton and Dele (something employment agencies do all the time so very legal)

b) we act quick and find him a loan to go will both play and support him or

c) we all leave him to recuperate this year and accept his wage cost is just another cost of the idiocy of Bill and Mosh years.

a) would likely be morally right, but I too agree Levy (and football in general) ain’t got morals….so I suspect it’ll be c) all day long.

Trauma is also pain, and anguish, and self-blame. The treatment itself can be very intense as well; anyone who is even willing to undertake the treatment is very brave in my book, so kudos to Dele Alli for taking that first step. I am sure there will be more steps, and I am sure that he has been told that already.

Playing football will be a massive bonus, but also perhaps a useful tool in his treatment. My personal view is that Everton will need to support Dele going forwards, and if there's any chance we can get 10 second-halves like the Palace game out of him, we should use him.

Dyche wants players who put in ‘maximum effort’ at all times and in recent evidence that is not Dele.

I really hope he’s able to turn it around but I think people believing it will be at Everton under Dyche are being wildly optimistic. He struggled to make any impact last year at a club where Nathan Redmond, Cenk Tosun and Wout Weghorst were tearing it up.