Dele Alli may have played his final Everton match after Tottenham suffered a £10 million blow.

Dele Alli may have already played his final game for Everton, much to the displeasure of his old club Tottenham.

Spurs are due a £10 million payment after he makes 20 appearances for the Toffees. He is presently on 13 but appears unlikely to reach the milestone, which Tottenham unsuccessfully attempted to renegotiate in early December.

The north London club proposed cutting the payment to £8 million in exchange for reducing the amount of appearances required.

However, it now appears like Everton will walk away from the deal entirely in order to keep their finances in check after being deducted 10 points in November for violating profit and sustainability criteria.

Dele’s Goodison Park contract is set to expire at the conclusion of the season, and an extension is unlikely. Sources have refused to say if Spurs would be entitled to compensate if the England international fails to make 20 appearances on Merseyside.

Relations between the two clubs worsened in November when it was revealed that Everton had accused Spurs of abusing their financial difficulties by demanding a high transfer fee.

The Toffees claimed Tottenham’s refusal to pay £80 million for Richarlison, who was eventually signed for £60 million, was ‘directly linked to PSR calculating issues.’

Dele, who has not played for the Toffees since August 2022, was forced to have groin surgery at the end of January due to another unfortunate injury setback. He has not played a competitive match since February 2023, when he appeared for Besiktas against Antalyaspor in the Turkish Super League.

Everton have now agreed to give Dele “time and space” to focus on his recuperation, after allowing the offensive midfielder to watch previous club Tottenham beat Brighton 2-1 last weekend.

The initial transfer, completed on deadline day in early 2022, was worth up to £40 million and was structured around performance-related add-ons.