Tottenham’s transfer window was a bit of a non-event in the end, with no new signings coming on and just a few fringe players departing.
However, that very nearly wasn’t the case.
The underlying narrative of the window was around two names, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, and it seemed as though at one point Spurs were going to get rid of Alli and bring in Eriksen.
Alli wanted a permanent departure, while Eriksen was being targeted on a loan, but despite the fact that Mourinho was happy for Alli to go, Levy put his foot down, and that has potentialy helped Spurs avoid what could have been a transfer disaster.
Alli is a talented player going through a bad run, and letting him go could have been another case of Mourinho writing a player off too soon, much like how he did with Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne at Chelsea.
Of course, a permanent exit wasn’t the only thing on the cards for Alli, he was also linked with a loan move to PSG, but swapping Alli for Eriksen, even for six months would have made very little sense.
Yes, Alli isn’t being used at the moment, but when he does play he can be one of the most effective attacking midfielders in the league. After all, he once scored 18 goals in a league campaign.
The same could of course be said about Eriksen, we all know how good he was at Tottenham first time around, but he’s now shown under multiple managers in numerous systems that he isn’t the player he once was, while Alli seems to be just going through a bad run.
Eriksen struggled during Mauricio Pochettino’s final months, he wasn’t great under Mourinho and he’s having issues with Antonio Conte, which suggests he’s genuinely regressing rather than just going through a poor run.
Meanwhile, Alli seems to be struggling to get to grips with life under Mourinho, but there is still a player in there, and as we’ve seen with Tanguy Ndombele this season, players with talent can quickly change their fortunes.
Fortunately, Spurs still have the opportunity to get the best out of Alli after Daniel Levy blocked him from leaving the club this month.
We can only hope that Mourinho can figure out how to get the best out of the two-time PFA Young Player of the Year winner.
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