Liverpool Intensify Search for Ndiaye as Transfer Window Closes
Liverpool are running out of summer. And the transfer window is starting to sound like a ticking clock around Anfield.
Andoni Iraola has three new faces through the door, but everyone inside and outside the club can see that it’s nowhere near enough. With Mohamed Salah gone and Hugo Ekitike injured, the forward line looks thin, the title talk feels premature, and the sense of urgency is unmistakable.
So Liverpool have started to push.
Liverpool move on Ndiaye as attacking search intensifies
Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye remain the two front-running names for Liverpool’s attacking rebuild. Both are admired. Both are being worked on. Neither is close enough to call a done deal, with no agreement yet on fees or personal terms.
Liverpool have already been burned once this summer, missing out on Yan Diomande after circling for weeks. They cannot afford a repeat. That’s why alternative targets are no longer a luxury; they’re a necessity.
Into that tension drops a remarkable twist: direct contact with Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye.
Caught Offside report that Liverpool have held “direct talks” with Ndiaye’s camp over a possible move, describing the Reds’ interest as “genuine” despite the historic reluctance to trade across Stanley Park. The idea of Liverpool and Everton doing major business is rare enough. Doing it for one of Everton’s standout players is something else entirely.
The report suggests Liverpool’s move could hint at concern over landing Barcola from PSG, or act as leverage in that negotiation, a way of turning the screw on the French club’s asking price. The exact motive remains unclear, but the contact is real. Liverpool, the piece says, are among the clubs to have engaged in direct discussions with those around Ndiaye, leaving open the possibility that talks could harden into a serious bid.
For a fanbase waiting for a statement signing in attack, that alone will raise the pulse.
A derby shocker in the making?
Make no mistake: prising Ndiaye from Everton would be a seismic deal.
Everton, under no pressure to sell cheaply to their fiercest rivals, have reportedly set a £75 million price tag for the Senegal international. Any premium for Liverpool, given the politics of the move, would only push that figure higher.
Ndiaye’s appeal is obvious. He can operate off either flank or in the No.10 role, offering Iraola the kind of positional flexibility that has underpinned Liverpool’s best attacking units in recent years. He knows the Premier League, he knows the intensity of English football, and he would not need a long bedding-in period.
His output is not yet in Salah territory, but that is hardly the bar for most forwards. Nine goal contributions last season underline a player on an upward curve rather than a finished article. At 26, he sits in that sweet spot between potential and prime.
Liverpool are not alone in admiring him. Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all named as clubs who would fancy their chances more in any bidding war. If Everton, under David Moyes, were to drive the price north of £100 million, Liverpool would almost certainly step away. The numbers would break the structure the club have tried to protect.
But the very fact Liverpool are even in the conversation for Ndiaye, and have gone as far as holding direct talks with his representatives, says plenty about the scale of their attacking rethink and the pressure they feel as the window winds down.
They need goals. They need versatility. They need a new face to lead the next era at Anfield.
Whether that face ends up being Iliman Ndiaye, or whether this pursuit simply forces another club’s hand, could define how ready Liverpool really are to chase the Premier League crown this season.
