Dele Alli: Liverpool could have signed him - but Steven Gerrard was asleep

Dele Alli could have signed for Liverpool but Steven Gerrard having a nap may have scuppered the deal.

Alli was impressing at League One MK Dons and was capturing the attention of numerous high-profile clubs.

One of those clubs was Liverpool – the club Alli supported as a boy.

In 2014, Alli travelled to Merseyside and Liverpool’s training ground ahead of a potential move.

However, he was unable to meet his idol as he was sleeping at the time.

“At the time when I was at MK there was contact with Liverpool before I signed for Tottenham, but that was before we’d even spoke to Tottenham,” Alli told Football Focus. “I think it was six months before.

“We went up there and I think they knew that Steven Gerrard was my hero, so they said he was going to come down to meet me, but when I got there he was asleep apparently.

“I think he had a game the next day though so I understand.”

It’s unknown whether Gerrard sleeping was a deal-breaker but it certainly wouldn’t have done Liverpool’s chances of signing Alli any harm whatsoever.

As we all know, Alli signed for Spurs for £5 million instead and initially flourished.

Two years later, former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers expained just how close the Reds were to signing the midfielder.

 “We thought we had him at Liverpool,” Rodgers told Goals on Sunday.

“The manager of MK Dons actually drove him down to us. They played a game on the Saturday and we were playing West Ham on the Sunday.

“We’d had contact with Dele, it was all above board, I was speaking with Karl Robinson and I spoke to Dele and his adoptive parents.

“Karl did really well with him and he came to me and said, ‘I’ve got a really exciting player, I’d love to see him at Liverpool’.

“I spent a couple of hours in a hotel