Dele Alli's loan move to PSG hinges on Tottenham finding a replacement

Paris St-Germain are pushing to sign Dele Alli on loan from Tottenham and talks are progressing well but the Premier League club have said that they do not want to let the midfielder go without finding a replacement.

The two clubs have been in talks for some time to try to find a way for Alli to rejoin his former manager, Mauricio Pochettino, at PSG but Spurs are concerned that letting the 24-year-old would leave them short in the final six months of the season as they are still in four competitions.

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Christian Eriksen, who has struggled since his move from Spurs to Inter, is an option to return but the Serie A side want Tottenham to pay the Dane’s wages in full and they are not willing to do that. It is not impossible, however, that the two clubs could come to an agreement.

Tottenham progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday night, beating Wycombe 4-1, and are in the League Cup final, where they face Manchester City, and have also progressed to the last 32 of the Europa League. In the Premier League, they are only one point behind fourth-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.

Mourinho has singled out Alli for criticism on several occasions this season and admitted last week that the midfielder was unhappy at the moment and not fighting for the club.

When Mourinho was asked directly whether Alli was unhappy, he replied: “In every dressing room are unhappy players. For sure. If any one of us, of my tribe, tells you that in his dressing room are only happy players, I don’t think it’s true. Or somebody is so, so lucky to have a miracle in his hands.

“Then you can have [an] unhappy professional and the unhappy professional is the one that is unhappy but feels that his duty is to work, work, work and work. And there is the unhappy that believes that it’s not his job to fight and to work every minute for the squad and for the club.”