Dele Alli update emerges amid previous Birmingham City, West Brom transfer links | OneFootball

The former Spurs star is back training with the club at which he made his name in order to get himself fit, amid interest from the Championship.

The former Spurs star is back training with the club at which he made his name, and this could set alarm bells ringing at clubs who've previously been connected with him.

With the January transfer window now having been closed for more than a month, the opportunities for EFL clubs to bolster their ranks are extremely limited indeed. But there remains a possibility that players unwanted elsewhere could yet be picked up as free agents to bolster their numbers.

One such player is the former Spurs attacking midfielder Dele Alli, who's been out of contract since leaving his last club Como in September. Dele's career has been in free-fall since he left The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the January 2022 transfer window, with unsuccessful stints elsewhere in England, Turkey and Italy since then.

But the latest news regarding a player who was once regarded as one of England's finest young attacking midfielders could be of interest to Championship clubs including Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion, who have been linked with a potential move for him.

Dele Alli is back training with Spurs to try and get fit for a new contract

The Athletic have reported on the social media platform X that Dele Alli is back training with Spurs at their training ground in Enfield while he looks for a club that will take him on. They reported that, "Tottenham have confirmed that Dele has been permitted to train on an academy pitch at Hotspur Way", and that, "He was seen working with an individual coach on Wednesday."

Dele made an emotional return to The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last month for a half-time interview during Spurs' recent 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal in the North London Derby, telling his interviewer that, "I can’t wait to get back on the pitch playing, hopefully it won’t be too long now."

He left Spurs in the January 2022 transfer window on a free transfer to Everton, but the move was not a success. His last competitive performance in England came in August 2022 with a brief substitute appearance against Aston Villa, ending his spell at Goodison Prk Everton stint having made 13 appearances, but having registered no goal contributions.

Dele Alli still has time to resurrect his playing career, but there a few players who'd come with a greater element of risk attached

With a career that completely went off the rails due to a combination of injury problems and mental health issues, Dele Alli may represent something of a gamble for any club that decides to offer him an opportunity to get his career back on track.

But at 29 years of age, there could yet be time for this to happen, and any club that could find a way of getting a tune out of him could seriously benefit from his arrival. Over six and a half years at Spurs, he made 269 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring 67 goals for them. He also won 37 caps for England, and played for them in their 2018 World Cup semi-final against Croatia.

Ironically, Championship clubs expressing an interest in him might find that their biggest opposition comes from Spurs themselves. The North Londoners are in the middle of a relegation battle for which they have seemed hopelessly ill-equipped for weeks, and are down to barely a full first eleven's worth of fit senior players as a result of an injury crisis that has gone on for much of the season.

Birmingham City were briefly linked with a move for the player at the time that his contract with Como was terminated in September, though they ended up not making a move for him. West Bromwich Albion and Wrexham were also linked with a possible move for him, though Albion were warned by FLW's fan pundit at the time that there were "too many red flags" to make a move.

Dele Alli's talent and potential were never in doubt, but his career trajectory has come to resemble a cautionary tale in recent years. If that raw talent can be unlocked again, he could even turn out to be the bargain of the season for whoever does make a move for him. But no new player without a degree of risk attached, and with this particular player that risk is greater than most.