Everton and big-spending Ipswich line up for the same free agent — again
Everton and Ipswich Town have been linked with the same target once more, this time in the race for a free agent wing-back.
Krepin Diatta is available without a fee after leaving Monaco when his contract expired, and both Everton and Ipswich are ‘also in the running’ for the Senegal international, according to Foot Mercato.
Marseille and German side Schalke are also credited with interest, while the 27-year-old is reportedly taking his time over the decision, weighing up options in England, Germany and Ligue 1.
Diatta is said to be determined not to make the wrong choice, which helps explain why his search for a new club has dragged into August. He was busy with Senegal at the World Cup over the summer before turning his full attention to finding his next move.
Diatta has been on English radars before. Watford checked on him back in 2020, Burnley followed up in 2023, and Crystal Palace were linked with a move earlier this summer, though nothing came of it.
It’s not the first time this window Everton and Ipswich have chased the same player, after speculation last week linked both clubs to one of Everton’s own squad members.
Everton’s pitch here is of a Premier League club that pushed for Europe last season. Ipswich will likely be fighting to stay up after last season’s promotion, and so, theoretically, it is a harder sell — even if their manager, Gary O’Neil, knows Diatta well from his time in charge of Strasbourg.
But the Suffolk club appear to have very deep pockets this summer.
Diatta made his name at Club Brugge after starting out at Norwegian side Sarpsborg, before three years in Ligue 1 with Monaco, where he was a regular starter until his contract ran out.
[Follow every Everton arrival on our summer transfer tracker].
Gary is editor for ReadEverton. He has many years experience of sports writing behind him after deciding (belatedly) that the world of accountancy wasn't for him. His work has been featured on (among many others) BBC Sport and The Metro. He has written on many sports, but considers himself an expert in football and F1. When not writing and editing he likes to go to the cinema and sip a lovely cold pint of Guinness (not always at the same time).
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