Tottenham are Still Paying Dele Alli’s Transfer Fee to MK Dons
Tottenham Hotspur have just sent extra money to MK Dons even after paying £5 million to sign Dele Alli earlier this year.
There was a Liverpool Echo article not too long ago, (actually it was last Tuesday) about Liverpool “failing” to sign a then-18-year-old Dele Alli from MK Dons during last January’s winter transfer window.
The Dons were playing in the third division of the Football League, League One during the 2014-15 season. For six months Alli was having a marvelous season: 34 appearances, 12 goals, five assists and 2,806 minutes from August 9, 2014 until he was bought by Spurs in February 2, 2015. Because of those numbers that Alli put up, plenty of teams were in the hunt to sign him and Liverpool was one of them.
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Unfortunately a slight resistance from Liverpool, not named Brendan Rodgers, decided against signing Alli due to a worry that he wasn’t ready for the Premier League just yet. As well as the amount of money that the Reds’ would have paid to Milton Keynes Dons. Which was cited as “others members of the transfer committee weren’t convinced that Alli represented value for money” from the Liverpool article above.
The amount that Tottenham signed Dele Alli for, a measly £5 million, on February 5, 2015 showed a shrewd transfer deal that Daniel Levy is known for doing. And now four months into the 2015-16 Premier League season after Dele Alli started becoming a starter in Mauricio Pochettino’s lineup, this has obviously been looked at as a major loss on Liverpool’s part . But of course due to Alli’s performances, most notably at the international level, Spurs will have to pay extra money back to the Dons.
However, this isn’t a transfer deal that is completely one-sided in favor of MK Dons.
In fact the add-ons which were included into Dele Alli’s transfer fee was a part of the negotiations between the two clubs. It was only made public now that add-ons were added in because, Tottenham had to pay MK Dons extra money.
Ironically enough, add-ons or staged payments if you will, is how Tottenham were going to sign Saido Berahino this summer before West Bromwich Albion’s chairman, Jeremy Peace, declined all four bids and bashed Daniel Levy’s transfer tactics. Lo and behold — as this is returning back to full circle with Dele Alli — Spurs and MK Dons were able to work out a transfer with add-ons.
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The catch is, based on how many international caps that Alli will receive moving forward after making his debut on October 9 during England’s Euro 2016 qualifying match against Estonia.
It may have been a substitution appearance, and not a start (something that wouldn’t happen until November 17 against France), but this has now cost Spurs £200,000 after Alli’s first cap.
The amount of money may or may not rise, but with each cap that Alli receives, Tottenham will continue to send a six-figure sum according to the Daily Mail, It’s unknown how many more caps must be needed in order to send money over, but in the short term and in the long term, having Tottenham continue to pay MK Dons money isn’t a problem. This is the price that clubs have to pay when they agree to these kinds of deals. And right now it’s benefiting both Tottenham and the Dons.
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Perhaps West Brom should have jumped on the transfer deals when they had the chance? The Baggies would have gotten an initial £5 million up front — the same as MK Dons got — plus, perhaps an extra £200,000 or even more over the years based on Saido Berahino making his England senior national team debut or just reaching certain milestones: appearances, goals or minutes.
In any event, Spurs were able to sign a player for the future, but Dele Alli is now entrenched to become a Tottenham player for the present, as well as for England.