Everton manager David Moyes has reiterated that the club has no intention of selling Iliman Ndiaye, and it would take an offer that was “absolutely outrageous” for the winger to depart Hill Dickinson Stadium in this transfer window.
With Ndiaye having turned down several new contract offers this year and then spoken of his desire to play Champions League football on the eve of the World Cup finals, his future has been subject to intense speculation 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.
Family and teammates back Ndiaye
In late July, Ndiaye’s father Mouhamadou Abdoulaye Ndiaye insisted: “he’s not going anywhere,” after revealing that his son had called him. Then, after Everton shared photographs of the player returning to training with his club colleagues in Germany the following week after his extending post-World Cup break after being in action for Senegal, his international team-mate Idrissa Gueye, who called time on his own Blues career this summer after seven years of service over two spells, replied: “Here to stay.”
Speaking in the embargo section of his pre-match press conference to preview Everton’s first game of the season against Crystal Palace, Moyes was asked if Ndiaye could go late in the window. The Blues boss said: “No. Unless there’s something absolutely outrageous.
“The words we say that ‘everyone has a price’ but he has not got a price to me. As far as I’m concerned, as long as I’ve been here, he has never been leaving and I don’t know where the stories have come from.
“I had no recollection or nobody mentioned to me about the other stuff that we’ve heard.”
Moyes praises Ndiaye's impact
Ndiaye returned to Everton midway through their German training camp in between their friendlies in Hamburg and Stuttgart, and Moyes praised the Senegal international’s attitude since he came back.
He said: “Ili has been great. The difference in his level when he came back with the team, he made the whole group jump a couple of levels because of his ability.
“He gave us a little bit of magic dust, Ili. He’s got that capability of doing that and I think he gives it to the supporters as well.
“So why would any manager, me being the one at the moment, have any thought that they’d be keen on selling him? Not at all.”
Grealish return uncertain
While Moyes is unwavering over Ndiaye, he admitted he is unsure about the possibility of a return for Jack Grealish to Everton after last season’s successful but injury-curtailed loan spell.
Asked whether he is hoping to get the Brummie ace back, the Glaswegian gaffer said: “It’s a difficult one. I don’t know at the moment.
“It’s a question that I can’t give you a clear answer on at the moment.”
