According to reporting in The Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton are close to an amicable agreement regarding the future of former Spurs midfield star Dele.
Dele, who cost Tottenham £5m (and was better than Özil) in 2015, was sold to Everton in January of 2022 in an unusual deal that was initially a free transfer but relied heavily on future performance- and appearance-based payments from Everton. Dele has had an awful time of it since, struggling with form, fitness, injury, and mental health, and met very few of those performance benchmarks. He has only made 13 total appearances for Everton, plus an additional 13 for Besiktas, where he spent the 2022-23 season on loan. He missed the entire 2023-24 season through injury, and his initial Everton contract expired in June.
Everton would like to keep him, but that presents a problem, as according to Patrick Boyland and Jay Harris his contract stated that Tottenham were due a sizable payment should he extend his stay with the Toffees. Dele is technically out of contract at the moment; he accepted an invitation to train at Tottenham to maintain his fitness this summer, and is now back at Everton’s Finch Farm training center, where the club kindly offered to help him continue with his rehabilitation from injury.
The new agreement would see Dele sign a new contract with Everton, while Tottenham would retain an undisclosed sell-on fee in the event Everton sell him to another club in the future.
What seems pretty abundantly clear is that both Spurs and Everton both ultimately want what’s best for Dele. He’s had a rough time of it over the past few seasons, and while he may never reach the promise he showed as a young player at Tottenham in his early 20s, there’s every chance he can still be a solid professional footballer with what’s left of his career. Tottenham aren’t going to get the (modest) fee they expected when they basically let him go to Everton for nothing, but they lose very little by negotiating in good faith for a former player and maintaining a small financial stake in his future. This feels like a good deal.
I admit the romantic in me was thrumming with the possibility of Ange Postecoglou offering a pay-to-play contract to Dele so he could come back to Spurs and be a role player for Spurs this coming season, but that never seemed likely. Dele’s future lies elsewhere, but he deserves the club’s (and the fans’) support for everything he’s gone through over the past few years.