Thursday 19 November 2015 11:24, UK
Liverpool missed out on boyhood fan Dele Alli because members of the club's transfer committee were unsure if he represented value for money.
Alli joined Tottenham for an initial fee of £5m from MK Dons in the summer but, according to the Liverpool Echo, the Reds had also been scouting the player with a view to taking him to Anfield.
The 19-year-old has been in fine form for Spurs this term and put in a man-of-the-match display as he scored on his full international debut against France on Tuesday.
He made his debut for MK Dons in the FA Cup at the age of 16 in November 2012, with former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers monitoring his progress closely throughout the following campaign.
The Echo reported Alli was a boyhood Liverpool supporter and he said he idolised former captain Steven Gerrard.
Alli said: "I remember Istanbul, the FA Cup final, and the game against Olympiakos: Gerrard just scoring amazing goals. Gerrard was a big influence on why I supported Liverpool."
Rodgers received regular updates on the midfielder from MK Dons boss Karl Robinson, who had previously coached at Liverpool's Kirkby Academy, and compared Alli to Gerrard.
Former Liverpool scout Mel Johnson pushed for a move to go through but when negotiations over a potential transfer began in the summer of 2014 the fee and add-ons kept rising.
While Rodgers was keen to push the deal through, others members of the club's transfer committee were not convinced Alli represented value for money and thought he could need more than a year to be ready for the Premier League.
No deal with Liverpool was reached, with Spurs securing his signature in January 2015, before loaning him back to MK Dons for the rest of the season.
