Loftus-Cheek and Barkley are much better natural talents than Dele is, whereas Alli strikes me as Thomas
Muller-type ‘limited’ but somehow effective footballer.
He’s allowed the hype to go to his head, with the endorsements and hyperbolic praise he got. For me, it’s time to cash in while his value is at its peak.
I suspect he’s going to United, based on the fact he’s now friends with ‘Agent P’ Pogba via Adidas, who’d no doubt enjoy having another of their hip young poster boys at one of their clubs. Woodward would value his marketability over football ability, as always, and probably be willing to spend circa £150m to get hold of him.
For me, that could be recycled to improve the squad significantly - Barkley, Pulisic, Zaha would all provide currently-lacking width and penetration to the attacking third - while Jose would probably be willing to throw Martial into the deal, another player of huge potential who’d eclipse Alli’s importance to the team.
It’s time to go full-Atletico, and cash in on some stars of this first phase of development for the benefit of the project longer term: Rose can go to be replaced by Sessegnon, Shaw or Tierney, Alderweireld won’t be renewing and looks to be picking up a few injuries so may aswell be sold before the start of the next season, and Alli has potentially lost focus and his languid attitude could be detrimental to the rest of the squad.