Tottenham Hotspur are open to out-of-form midfielder Dele Alli departing the club during the upcoming January transfer window.

What's the story?

According to The Athletic, Spurs would be willing to accept an appropriate offer for the 25-year-old's services over the winter after falling down the pecking order in north London.

The report states that: "The Athletic understands that Spurs would be more open to allowing the player to move on. Certainly, for the moment he doesn’t appear to be in Nuno’s plans."

Spurs fans will be buzzing

It seemed as though Dele was going to conquer the world in the early stages of his career.

The former England international scored 46 goals and provided a further 41 assists in 146 appearances for Spurs between 2015/16 and 2017/18, cementing his status as one of the most exciting prospects in European football.

However, he's failed to replicate that sort of form since playing his part in England reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.

A mini-renaissance under former manager Jose Mourinho saw Dele bag four goals in his first four games under the Portuguese coach, leading to hope that the creative talent was set to return to his best.

“(Alli’s) too good to not be one of the best players in the world and not playing with the national team,” said Mourinho after a steller Dele performance against West Ham United back in 2019.

“I’m happy with him, I spent a few minutes with him in training and outside the pitch. And we were saying that the best Dele Alli has to be back.”

Unfortunately, though, it proved to be a false dawn. The engine room operator tailed off after his fast start under Mourinho and endured one of the worst campaigns of his career last term.

Dele started just seven Premier League games throughout 2020/21 and ended up with a meagre eight goal contributions from his 29 outings, indicating just how far he's fallen in recent years.

And now, under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo, he's been reduced to a fringe player only called upon for UEFA Conference League duty after his initial spell in central midfielder proved unsuccessful.

The reasons behind Dele's dramatic decline remain shrouded in mystery, but a large section of the Tottenham supporters will surely be buzzing that closure over the whole sorry ordeal appears to be just around the corner.

In reaction to this report, it certainly appears to be the case - as relayed by This is Futbol, many fans were delighted by the news with the word "finally" prominent amongst much of the reaction.

That only goes to show that a large majority around N17 are excited by this claim.

And, in other news...13 clearances, 85 touches: £18m-rated Spurs beast has just handed Nuno one big dilemma