SEVEN goals in his last four Premier League games tells its own story. And while he is unlikely to feature today when Tottenham Hotspur host Aston Villa – the magic of the cup is not a recurring theme in Mauricio Pochettino’s life – there is little question that Dele Alli is the hottest young commodity in the English game right now.

The performance which helped end Chelsea’s unbeaten streak in mid-week was as good a showcase of his talents as any. Not just the headers, but the ability to find space, both through athleticism, which he has in spades, but also through a precocious intelligent reading of the game. Add the sumptuous technical ability – witness his absurd goal-of-the-season contender last year – and the sort of “head up” confidence and personality that managers love and you can see why the usually sniffy, towards Englishmen, Spanish press were linking him to Real Madrid a week ago.

Or consider this. Last season Romelu Lukaku became only the fifth player to reach the 50-goal mark in the Premier League before his 23rd birthday. The others who have done it are Robbie Fowler, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Cristiano Ronaldo which is what you would call an elite group.

Alli doesn’t turn 23 for another two years and three months and is already at 20 top-flight goals in just 45 starts. He is on pace to reach 50 goals too. Unlike the others, not a single one of his goals has come from the penalty spot. And, of course, unlike the others, he is not a centre-forward, but rather plays behind a central striker (and a very prolific one at that in Harry Kane).

And yet the tale of how Alli got to where he is has more than a bit of sliding doors around it and, perhaps, should serve as a reminder of the perils of how talent is evaluated. Most Alli narratives list the League Cup performance in August 2014 against Manchester United as his official coming out party. He already had a full season as a regular at MK Dons under his belt, albeit in League 2, but this was the game when club officials from half a dozen Premier League sides, rather than anonymous scouts, came to watch him take on a second-string United, though one that still contained the likes of David De Gea, Jonny Evans, Danny Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa and Chicharito.

United were beaten 4-0 with goals from two strikers who would go on to bigger things – Benik Afobe would become a £10 million striker at Bournemouth, Will Grigg would catch fire and become part of the Euro 2016 soundtrack – but Alli was the second biggest story of the day, after the first, the public stoning of Louis van Gaal.

Tottenham were confident they could sign Alli that January, thanks in part to the close links between chairman Daniel Levy and his MK Dons counterpart Pete Winkleman. The plan was for him to go to White Hart Lane for the second half of the 2014-15 campaign so he could bed in and be evaluated by Pochettino. Then, that summer, when he would have just turned 19, he would be sent on loan, most likely to the Championship.

That plan, ironically, was scuppered by Pochettino himself. He was six months into the job and coming to grips with a relatively big squad and with a core of youngsters from the Under-21 side he was keen to consider. Having another kid around would be a distraction.

The deal dragged on until the final hours of the transfer window when Tottenham, effectively overruling their manager, signed him anyway but immediately loaned him back to MK Dons, where he went on to lead them to promotion and become the division’s player of the season. He eventually joined Spurs for pre-season training that summer, impressed Pochettino and the rest, of course, is history.

Pochettino obviously did not intend for things to develop the way they did, but there is an alternative reality where the Spurs boss agrees to the original plan. And, with Tottenham chasing a European spot for much of the season, it’s likely that Alli would not have had a look-in and would have been loaned out, as per the initial intention, in 2015-16. Which would, almost certainly, have meant no title chase last year, no goal of the season contender and no Euro 2016. He would still be the same guy, he would just be 18 months behind in his development.

Let that serve as a reminder. Sometimes things work out for the better in the most unexpected ways.

THE Africa Cup of Nations kicks off on Saturday amidst the usual gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair from European clubs who will lose players for up to a month (because, obviously, they could not possibly have known these guys were African when they signed them).

As ever, there are concerns over security and organisation, with some already pointing fingers at the host nation, Gabon. The favourites, once again, are Ivory Coast with the likes of Eric Bailly, Wilfried Bony and, for the first time, Wilfried Zaha, Senegal, powered by Sadio Mane, Cheikhou Kouyate and Idrissa Gueye and Algeria, with Riyad Mahrez, Yacine Brahimi and Islam Slimani. Nigeria, for the second straight time, failed to quality.

But the story grabbing headlines in the build-up concerned Cameroon, where tough-minded Belgian boss Hugo Broos has laid down the law, axing half a dozen long-time veterans like Carlos Kameni, Aurelien Chedjou, Henri Bedimo and Stephane Mbia. On top of that – or, some say, because of that – Broos has had to deal with no fewer than seven other players, including Liverpool’s Joel Matip, who have announced that if selected they would not be answering the call.

It has proven an embarrassment for the Cameroon FA and polarised fans and the media. Broos, clearly not one to be intimidated, after exploring the possibility of Fifa sanctions against the want-aways, has taken the familiar “if you don’t want to be here, there’s the door” line.

Still, it’s hard to imagine a situation like that in a major European or South American nation. And it underscores how difficult the conditions can often be in the African game.