Former Everton defender Richard Dunne believes Manchester City underpaid for Iliman Ndiaye this summer. City signed Ndiaye in a £65million deadline day deal, but only after Tottenham Hotspur had agreed terms with the Blues for the Senegal international.
Ndiaye had been linked with a move away from Everton all summer after turning down offers of a contract extension at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. Dunne believes City, who have since been found guilty by an independent commission of breaking the Premier League's financial rules between 2009 and 2018, didn't pay what the Blues would have wanted.
Dunne on the Grealish factor
“I think they could have, yeah,” the former Republic of Ireland centre-back replied when asked if he felt City had underpaid for Ndiaye.
“The fact they agreed a similar fee with Tottenham was surprising to start with. From Everton’s point of view, it was probably the fact that they got Jack Grealish.
“He’s obviously in the last year of his contract, so to get him on loan is pretty unusual, but I’m sure that had some part in the Ndiaye deal.
“So whilst the money is probably less than Everton would have liked, the fact that Grealish went back there as well helps ease the blow a little bit.”
Forward concerns ahead of January
The Blues return to action on Sunday afternoon when they take on Hull City at the MKM Stadium and they remain unbeaten despite a chaotic end to the transfer window.
After Folarin Balogun walked out on a move to the club and Beto departed, David Moyes only has one senior forward in Thierno Barry.
Dunne, speaking via OLBG, believes bringing in a forward in the January transfer window could be key to his old club having a good season.
He said: “Everton have probably been mid-table since David Moyes came back, and they don’t really seem to have the investment to push them any higher.
“I saw them in pre-season and they looked really good when they played Newcastle up in Edinburgh, but they looked light in terms of squad numbers.
“So I still think January is going to be a big time for them again. They’ve started really well. They’re always going to be difficult to beat - it’s just whether they can get enough goals to be winning tight games, because now and again you’ll be on the wrong end of a goal or whatever it may be.
“If they can’t take the lead in games, if they can’t get that fight back into them, then it becomes really hard.
“If they can be around that top eight come January, and hopefully invest in a striker or whatever David Moyes feels they need at that stage, then they can maybe have a push towards the back end of the season. But this first half of the season is just about being consistent and trying to pick up results all along the way.”
