Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit issues claim on "strange" Birmingham City, Dele Alli links | OneFootball

Don Goodman reacts to Dele Alli's transfer links to Birmingham City

Rumours surrounding the former England international Dele Alli set for a move to the Championship have taken social media by storm.

West Bromwich Albion, Wrexham and Birmingham City have all been linked with moves for the 29-year-old, as per the Daily Mail, in what could end up being a scramble for his services.

After departing Serie A side, Como, merely playing once under Cesc Fàbregas last season after his arrival in January 2025, Alli has severely struggled to make an impression and revive his career since leaving Spurs back in 2022.

Spells with Everton, Besiktas, and most recently Como have been nothing short of a failure for the ex-Premier League wonderkid, who now at 29 years of age, could be set to try and re-ignite his career back where it started in the EFL.

Don Goodman issues Dele Alli verdict as free agent interest grows stronger

Alli's last professional game came back in March when he came on as a late substitute against Italian giants, AC Milan, only to get a red card 10 minutes later - a horror debut he'll want to get out of his mind by getting back out on the pitch.

Prior to that, the 29-year-old last played in February 2023 when out on loan from Everton with Besiktas - it's really been a torrid few years for the attacking midfielder.

With a move to Birmingham City potentially on the cards, Sky Sports pundit, Don Goodman is unsure on whether anyone can get the best out of Alli, let alone Blues boss Chris Davies.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Goodman can't quite see where the best version of Alli is going to come from after being non-existent for a long while now - or whether Blues are the right club to make it work for him.

Goodman told FLW: "It's a strange one isn't it with Birmingham. Obviously, they were linked with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. I don't know where these links are coming from or if they are accurate or not.

"Dele Alli obviously had a little go in Italy with Como. So, we just haven't seen the best version of Dele Alli for such a long time.

"So, I don't know what the answer would be, or whether Chris Davies would be the man to get the best out of him or whether it's simply passed him by.

"Obviously, if anybody could get the best version of Dele Alli, then I think Premier League clubs would be queuing up."

Dele Alli could struggle to fit into Chris Davies' system at Birmingham City

If Alli were to make the move into Chris Davies' side, despite it being a good piece of business due to the vast experience at the top-level he would bring to St. Andrew's, it's difficult to see where he would fit into Davies' system.

Whilst Davies does tend to play a 4-2-3-1 formation with Alli's favoured number 10 role a factor, Jay Stansfield looks to have taken up that position to support Kyogo Furuhashi up-top - City's record signing is a complete different type of player to Alli in that role and he's not an out-and-out attacking midfielder.

Without the Blues playing with a natural number 10, it's hard to see where Alli could play.

The midfield duo of Tomoki Iwata and Seung-Ho Paik seem irreplaceable due to their consistently high performance levels, and a wide right or left position is not a role that would suit the 29-year-old's expertise.

A role from the bench as an impact sub, if he were to sign for Birmingham, could be positive for Alli to build up momentum, as he can't be selective with his dire need for game-time.

But with very few minutes in the legs, constant injury concerns, and perhaps even a loss of confidence, Alli doesn't seem like an attractive option to slot into a team that is gunning to win promotion to the top flight of English football after a long absence from the game itself.