Dele Alli was very close to playing for his Childhood Club, Liverpool

What would have become of Dele Alli had he started at a much different club with a different mentality?

It comes as a bit of a tragic tale for the trajectory Dele Alli’s career headed after a very promising start initially that led to interests from quite a number of clubs.

One of those clubs he very nearly could have found himself playing at was his boyhood club, Liverpool instead of Tottenham Hotspur in which he eventually ended up at.

The Englishman even journeyed to Merseyside and Liverpool’s training ground ahead of the potential move and was very close to meeting his idol, Steven Gerrard.

It was in 2014, while he was still with MK Dons and prior to signing for Spurs.

On the move, Dele Alli recounted in an interview with Football Focus saying:

“At the time when I was at MK there was contact with Liverpool before I signed for Tottenham, but that was before we’d even spoke to Tottenham, I think it was six months before.

“We went up there and I think they knew that Steven Gerrard was my hero, so they said he was going to come down to meet me, but when I got there he was asleep apparently.

“I think he had a game the next day though so I understand.” He said, revealing how a meeting with Liverpool legend prior to a move ended up not happening.

Alli ended up signing up for the North London side for £5 million where he initially had some degree of success.

Former Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers confirming the story, revealed;

“We thought we had him at Liverpool,

“The manager of MK Dons actually drove him down to us. They played a game on the Saturday and we were playing West Ham on the Sunday.

“We’d had contact with Dele, it was all above board, I was speaking with Karl Robinson and I spoke to Dele and his adoptive parents.

“Karl did really well with him and he came to me and said, ‘I’ve got a really exciting player, I’d love to see him at Liverpool’.

“I spent a couple of hours in a hotel room with him and he wanted to come to Liverpool. It was all about getting the deal done with the club but unfortunately it never got done.

“On Saturday evening we thought it had got done but eventually he went to Tottenham, which was frustrating and disappointing. He’s done really well there.”

After quite the impressive start and even seeing a place in the PFA Team of the Year, things went all downhill then after with the player unable to replicate his magnificent form.

Tottenham Hotspur were ultimately forced to sell him to Everton after having managed just 14 goals in 4 campaigns and never being called to represent England since 2019.

After just half a season at Everton, the 26 year old looks set to be forced out of Frank Lampard’s plans for the season as links to a move to Turkish club, Besiktas gear up for the midfielder.