Where did it go wrong? A young Dele Alli likened to Yaya Toure & Mousa Dembele as former Tottenham star remains without a club & stuck in free agency

Before his Premier League fame, a teenage Dele Alli dominated academy football at MK Dons. Former defender Jordan Buck recalls Alli's extraordinary physical and technical power, comparing his style to the most elite engines in the league's history rather than a typical winger.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Buck noted: "He was so skinny, but he just used to just glide past people. This was just a tall frame, just knows when to touch the ball, when to shift his body. And he just cut through players. Like the way Mousa Dembele and Yaya Toure used to drive past players, not like an Eden Hazard or a Mohamed Salah. He’d drop so deep, get the ball directly from the keeper and just glide through from his box, through the midfield, and then he’s finding a pass in the final third."

That ability to carry the ball the entire length of the pitch made Alli’s £5 million move to Tottenham in 2015 feel like a foregone conclusion. While other prospects like Ross Barkley carried significant hype into youth fixtures, Alli was a silent assassin who commanded the pitch through sheer presence and intelligence. For Buck and his teammates, the talent was undeniable from the first whistle.

"I had no idea who he was. That day, I had no idea," Buck admitted when reflecting on their youth encounters. "There’s just this tall, skinny dude just picking up the ball and just driving through everyone. He was unreal. He was just shining through. Kind of similarly to Yann Gueho, I think not as explosive, erratic and showboaty as Yann. But definitely had a similar sort of impact on the pitch. He’d take care of bringing the ball up the entire length of the pitch. And I was in shock."

The trajectory that saw Alli score spectacular volleys at Selhurst Park and haunt Real Madrid at Wembley has taken a devastating turn. After a difficult spell at Everton and a loan in Turkey with Besiktas, Alli attempted to revive his career under Fabregas at Como. However, that partnership ended abruptly in September when the Italian side terminated his contract, leaving the former superstar without a professional home.

At 30, Dele Alli is a high-profile free agent struggling to find a new club. Once compared to Europe's elite at Spurs, his decline serves as a sobering reminder of how quickly football moves on, leaving him to prove his fitness and form to sceptical suitors.

The journey of a young player is often shaped by the excellence they witness in training, and Buck recalls witnessing similar levels of "insane" talent daily at QPR with Adel Taarabt. The Moroccan midfielder was another example of a player whose raw ability was world-class.

"I got to see Adel Taarabt up close, and he was just a monster. He is the best player that I have ever seen up close and personal. It was just ridiculous," Buck said. "He was absolutely insane. Nutmegs, it was just for fun. Nothing you can do about it, don't even try. It's going to happen. The best thing you can do is stay three feet away from him, then he just shoots and scores, so it's lose, lose. We had our own little Ronaldinho on camp just doing Ronaldinho-type stuff. It was nuts!"