Liverpool's Urgent Pursuit of Iliman Ndiaye Amid Transfer Window Pressure
Liverpool are running out of runway in this transfer window, and the mood around Anfield reflects it. The squad still looks short, the clock is ticking, and the margin for error at the top of the Premier League is shrinking by the day.
Three signings have arrived under Andoni Iraola so far, but nobody inside the club is pretending that’s enough to launch a serious title push. Another three or four additions are widely seen as the minimum if Liverpool want to go toe-to-toe with Manchester City and Arsenal across a full season.
The urgency is starting to bite. Deals for key attacking targets have dragged. Negotiations have stalled. And now, with only weeks left before the window shuts, Liverpool appear ready to take a swing that would have been almost unthinkable in most summers.
Liverpool open talks over shock Iliman Ndiaye move
The forward line needs help. That much is obvious.
Mohamed Salah has gone. Hugo Ekitike is sidelined through injury. What’s left is a group with promise but not enough proven firepower or depth for a club with Liverpool’s ambitions.
Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye are currently the closest to the door, but “close” doesn’t win you points in August. No transfer fees agreed, no personal terms sealed. Until pens hit paper, they remain ideas, not solutions.
Liverpool have already been burned once this summer, missing out on Yan Diomande after moving too slowly. They cannot afford a repeat. So they’ve widened the net.
That’s where Iliman Ndiaye comes in.
According to Caught Offside, Liverpool have held “direct talks” with the representatives of the Everton attacker over a potential move. Just that sentence alone is enough to raise eyebrows across Merseyside.
“Sources in the industry confirm that Liverpool’s interest in Ndiaye is genuine,” the outlet reported, stressing how rare it is for the Reds to even attempt business with their fiercest local rivals. The talks, they say, could hint at concern over the Barcola deal, or be a tactical play to push PSG into lowering their demands for a player keen to leave.
The motives remain unclear, but the message is not: Liverpool have engaged with Ndiaye’s camp. This is not a vague enquiry. It is a live option.
A derby deal that would shake Merseyside
For Everton, Ndiaye is a centrepiece. A sale to Liverpool would only happen on their terms, at a price that leaves them no choice.
Caught Offside report that Everton value the Senegal international at around £75 million. Any direct sale to Anfield would almost certainly come with an extra layer of rivalry tax, pushing that figure even higher from Liverpool’s perspective.
On the pitch, the appeal is obvious. Ndiaye can operate off either flank or as a No 10, offering Iraola the kind of tactical flexibility he craves. He already knows the Premier League, has handled the physicality and intensity, and would not need a long bedding-in period.
He is not Salah. Nobody at Liverpool is pretending otherwise. But nine goal contributions last season hint at a player still climbing, not one at his ceiling. In the right system, with better service and more of the ball, those numbers could grow.
The problem? Liverpool are not alone.
Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all named as admirers, and all would likely find it easier to do business with Everton than Liverpool would. If David Moyes and Everton push the price beyond £100 million, the expectation is that Liverpool simply walk away.
Even so, the very fact Liverpool are in this conversation says plenty about their current state of mind. They know they need another attacker. They know the market is tight. And they are prepared, at least in theory, to test one of English football’s most sensitive fault lines to get one.
Ndiaye to Liverpool remains a long shot, an explosive one at that. But if Iraola and sporting director Richard Hughes somehow manage to drag this across the line, it would not just be a big signing.
It would be a statement that Liverpool are willing to rip up old rules to chase the top again.
