Swansea City should consider shock Dele Alli gamble - there are red flags though | OneFootball

Swansea City have been linked with move for the former Spurs and England star Dele Alli, but there are potential red flags regarding this player.

Swansea City have been linked with an audacious move for the former Spurs and England star Delle Alli, but such a move wouldn't come without a degree of risk.

It's been a solid start to the season for Swansea City. After losing their opening weekend match at Middlesbrough, the Swans have gone unbeaten through five matches, including two wins in the EFL Cup, and this has left them in 7th place in the Championship table at this early stage.

And transfer deadline day was a success, with Adam Idah arriving from Celtic for £6 million, and Ishé Samuels-Smith and Manuel Benson arriving on loan from Chelsea and Burnley respectively. But the closure of the transfer window doesn't mean that no further players can be brought into a club. Some windows remain open, and there are many players who are without a club who can be brought in at any time.

Dele Alli has been linked with a shock move to Swansea City

It is one of these out-of-contract players who has drawn the attention of Swansea City. There have been whispers that the Swans could be set to bring Alli back to the Championship following his release by the Italian club Como at the beginning of this month, and at 29-years-old there's certainly still time for the attacking midfielder to get his career back on track following several lost years.

But at the same time, those lost years are an obvious red flag. If Alan Sheehan is able to get a tune out of Dele, he would be the first manager to have done so in a very long time. And while the player's wage expectations are unknown, as a former international player with more than 200 appearances under his belt, he might not come cheap. Capology estimate his wage at Como to have been £100,000-a-week. He'd have to take a substantial pay cut to be affordable for the Swans.

Dele Alli is an incredible talent, but his last few years have been disaster after disaster

That Dele Alli even made it as a professional footballer is a considerable achievement. He had a traumatic childhood, which could easily have ended in very different outcomes for him. But through his development at MK Dons and his subsequent move to Spurs, he more than demonstrated that he was worthy of a place at football's top table.

But things have been difficult for him too. In 2018, he was ranked as the world's most valuable midfield player, following three outstanding seasons at White Hart Lane. But the years following this were not kind to him. He lost his regular place in the Spurs team and his England place, and moved to Everton on a free transfer in January 2022.

There was no sign of the end to his deterioration at Goodison Park. Dele made just 13 appearances for Everton over three years without registering a goal or an assist, while a loan move to the Turkish side Besiktas didn't go much better, with their head coach Şenol Güneş describing him as "below expectations in terms of efficiency" in September 2022. He managed 13 games and two goals before returning to Everton park with a hip injury.

With injury having kept him out for the whole of the 2023-24 season, he was released by Everton in 2024 and joined Como in January 2025, but again things didn't work out for him. It took two months for him to make his debut for them, and when he did, it was a disaster. Brought on as a late substitute, he was sent off in stoppage-time, just ten minutes after his introduction. It turned out to be his only appearance for the club. He was released from his contract earlier this week.

So the risk would be great. There are few players who've endured a worse few seasons than this one. But there remains potential. Dele was electrifying in his first few years at Spurs, showcasing consistent world-class performance levels. There's a reason why he was rated so highly in 2018, and even now, at 29 years of age, there remains an opportunity for him to get his career back on track and give himself an Indian summer.

But 2018 was seven years ago now, and practically nothing has worked out for him since. Should Swansea decide to take a chance on him, they will surely have to do so with their eyes wide open.

It's very much a case of balancing high risk with high reward. The payoff from Dele even recapturing mere shades of the talent he exhibited in North London would help Swansea to become a formidable Championship force, although so many have tried and failed to do exactly that.

It could, however, be worth a gamble if an affordable deal can be brokered.