Alli, the £5m bargain, shows that he’s still ‘having fun’
IT WAS two years ago last week that fresh-faced teenager Dele Alli signed for Tottenham Hotspur.
The fee MK Dons were paid upfront was £5million. Just process that for a moment. Five million quid.
Alli perhaps put it best on the anniversary of his arrival: ‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’
The progress he has made has been astonishing. He seems tailor-made for the way modern football is played. Everything he does is at hyper-speed, from the bursts that generate a surge of anticipation, to his elegant first touch and casual flashes of skill.
All of these attributes have matured in the past two years, but one thing that has remained constant is his part in Spurs’ goalscoring threat. In 56 league games, he has been involved in 32 of their goals, an incredible return.
Yesterday, he was at the centre of everything. The first-half supply of passes wide to Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-min was constant, and when he glided past Marten de Roon, the Boro man could only drag back his shirt.
The one-way traffic continued after the break. There would be no goal, but this game was yet another reminder of how far the £5million man has come.