Everton should keep hold of Iliman Ndiaye because a £70million fee would not be “interesting enough”, according to Blues FA Cup hero Anders Limpar.
Ndiaye has turned down several new contract offers this year and spoke of his desire to play Champions League football on the eve of the World Cup finals, sparking intense speculation about his future this summer. However, Everton remain adamant that the man who scored their last goal at Goodison Park and first at Hill Dickinson Stadium is not for sale, with no price tag set and the club's stance unchanged since David Moyes declared in April: “He is the last person I would consider selling.”
Father and team-mate back stay
Over the past week, Ndiaye's father Mouhamadou Abdoulaye Ndiaye insisted “he's not going anywhere” after revealing his son had called him. After Everton shared photos of the player returning to training with club colleagues in Germany following his extended post-World Cup break with Senegal, international team-mate Idrissa Gueye, who ended his own Blues career this summer after seven years over two spells, replied: “Here to stay.”
Limpar, the Ndiaye of his day, was a boyhood Evertonian growing up in Sweden and got to live the dream as part of the 1995 FA Cup winning team, with manager Joe Royle labelling him a football genius and the most talented player he ever worked with.
Limpar: Don't sell your best players
Asked if he'd keep Ndiaye no matter what kind of bid came in, Limpar, speaking courtesy of SveaCasino, told the ECHO: “That's a tricky question. It always comes down to money. Nobody in the whole world will pay £100 million for him so why should Everton sell him?
“If offers come in for £60-70 million, that's not interesting enough for Everton. Why should they even bother?
“I mean, look at it from the other side, if Iliman Ndiaye can get Everton into Europe, they can make the same return that way, and they might even win an FA Cup or a League Cup on the way too.
“It would take much more money in that sense to sell him and replace him with a nobody for £40million, so in my opinion Everton should solve the problem by signing Jack Grealish first and I think that will solve the problem with Ndiaye.
“They are both Everton players, to me. Everton should not be selling their best players.”
Saudi interest dismissed
One club interested in Ndiaye are Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, but his father poured cold water on that idea, adding: “He knows he can earn a lot of money there, but he also thinks his level could drop. He's not the type to prioritise money over his career.”
Limpar, now 60, concurs and said: “I'm going to put it like this. How much money do you want?
“How much money does a person need in life? These guys are already multi-millionaires so why go to Saudi Arabia when you're 26? You got to Saudi Arabia when you're 36!
“Go to Saudi Arabia when you no longer feel close enough to the pace of the Premier League. It's never good to talk about greed in football but come on, why would you ever go to Saudi Arabia when you can play in the Premier League?”
