In 2012, a 16-year-old Dele Alli strutted onto the pitch to make his MK Dons debut. His first touch was a back-heel pass.

That was just a hint of what was to come in the midfielder's short career so far. 

If the Dons' then-manager Karl Robinson had any doubts about fast-tracking such a young player into the senior team, they must have evaporated when he scored from 30 yards less than a fortnight later.

Unsurprisingly, of the four main elements monitored in every young player’s game, Dons coaches immediately set to work on the social and psychological aspects of his game, feeling he was already strong enough technically and physically.

A sin-bin was even brought into training, ostensibly for the whole team, but largely for Alli.
At Spurs, he has encountered a similar problem, with West Brom's Claudio Yacob famously getting on the wrong end of his temper.

His misdemeanours are easily forgivable, though, as he has fitted so seamlessly into Mauricio Pochettino's side.

The fact that he only cost £5million is quite incredible, especially in today's market. Tottenham were taking a risk, but thanks to new developments in scouting technology, they will have been assured that he would easily adapt to the Premier League. 

As seen in The Winning Formula, a GiveMeSport series looking at the increasing use of data analytics in scouting, players from different leagues around the world can now be compared scientifically, making it much easier to judge whether they'll be good enough to make the step up.

Spurs also employed more old-fashioned scouting methods, with Mauricio Pochettino travelling to Milton Keynes to see what the League One Player of the Year had to offer.

When he finally made the move to White Hart Lane, there were no guarantees of first team football, and he only made a brief cameo on the first day of the 2015/2016 season in a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.

Such was his impact in his first few games that he quickly established himself in the starting XI and has won back-to-back PFA Young Player of the Year awards in his two seasons in north London.

Alli has often spoken about how Steven Gerrard was his idol growing up, and his tally of 28 Premier League goals is already more than the Liverpool legend had scored by the same age.

The 21-year-old's meteoric rise has been nothing short of remarkable, even more so because MK Dons had only existed for three years before taking him on. However, with scouting now at such an advanced level, it's unlikely he would have stayed under the radar for long.