Newcastle have been linked with a bid for a player currently making waves at Everton - but is it a deal that will really get done?
For all the money that Newcastle United spent on improving their attack this summer, they’re still having problems up front – and while Nick Woltemade has looked the part, he may need more support if Eddie Howe’s side are to continue pushing for top four finishes.
Only the three teams in the relegation zone have scored fewer goals over the first eight games of the Premier League season. Yoane Wissa has been struck down by injury, Anthony Gordon has been struggling for form, and Anthony Elanga has been disappointing so far. All of which could lead Newcastle to look for reinforcements – and a new story doing the rounds suggests that they could look to buy another proven Premier League player.
Why Newcastle are watching an Everton star this season
TeamTalk are one of a handful of media outlets to have Newcastle down as being one of the suitors for Everton winger Iliman Ndiaye, arguably their best and most consistent attacking player since he signed from Marseille in 2024.
Ndiaye isn’t an especially prolific goalscorer – he scored nine times in 33 Premier League appearances for the Toffees in the 2024/25 season – but he’s started the current campaign in fine fettle, hitting three goals already, and his combination of speed and ball control has made him a head-ache from the wings for several left-backs. Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly was his latest victim, turned inside out twice by Ndiaye who was unlucky not to add to his tally.
Given that Newcastle are a team that like to get at opposing defences in a direct fashion but with the ball at their feet, Ndiaye is a logical target. He has a broadly similar profile to that of Elanga – capable of taking on defenders one-on-one and beating them while using pace to attack empty space and get in behind the lines to generate opportunities.
Ndiaye’s greatest weakness as a winger is perhaps his final ball – he has only registered one assist in 41 league games for his current club, although that owes something to the finishing quality of his colleagues – but teams that value the ability to get in behind rather than the ability to deliver a pinpoint cross will value the 25-year-old’s skillset all the same.
It helps that he’s a huge asset in the high press, and Newcastle still like to keep the pressure on the opposition as often as possible – his 6.6 ball recoveries per game is an enormous number for a winger and a testament to how effective he is off the ball as well as on it. Few wingers work harder or more effectively to win the ball back once it’s lost.
All of that makes him precisely the kind of player that Howe values, and a logical transfer target for a player whose purchases of Wissa and Elanga hint at a potential preference for players that have already shown that they can cut the mustard. But will such a deal actually take place?
Will Newcastle sign Iliman Ndiaye?
TeamTalk’s report doesn’t suggest that Newcastle are the only team keeping tabs on the Frenchman, by any means – Tottenham Hotspur are supposedly a possible destination, as well, while AC Milan, Juventus and Atlético Madrid are all mentioned too. Ndiaye seems to have quite a few fans.
If there really is such depth of interest, it will naturally reduce the chances that any specific side gets the deal done, but one advantage that Newcastle will always have (especially over Italian teams) is financial. And Everton will not let Ndiaye go cheap. The report suggests that he could cost a suitor as much as £60m at a bare minimum, four times the amount that Everton paid for him less than 18 months ago – not that a deal is likely to take place until the summer.
Ndiaye has established himself as a critical part of the team and while the club’s financial reality after the damaging Farhad Moshiri era is that they will likely remain a selling side for the foreseeable future, they have no incentive to sell him soon given the likely difficulty of replacing him.
His departure would hurt Everton considerably – he may be a good match for Howe’s style of play, but he lines up rather nicely with the way that David Moyes does things as well. He’s also the only player on the team to score more than once in the league this season and is second for both expected goals and assists within the squad.
He's under contract at the Hill Dickinson Stadium until 2029 (the TeamTalk article incorrectly states that it is 2028) which gives Everton plenty of leverage, for which they are likely very grateful. It will take a lot of money to force their hand.
As such, this is a deal which won’t be going anywhere until next summer and which won’t be done easily even then. Newcastle may very well be keen, but perhaps by the time the opportunity to do a deal does come round Elanga and Wissa have taken the chance to establish themselves and they decide to spend in different areas. But many rumours which do the round at this time of year, this one does at least have the weight of logic behind it. Ndiaye would suit Newcastle very nicely indeed.
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