Mikel Arteta_v5
With less than 72 hours left before Tuesday night’s deadline, a genuine North London scramble has broken out. Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal are both moving for Everton attacker Iliman Ndiaye, the 26-year-old Senegalese international who was supposed to be on his way to Manchester City.
According to D Sports journalist Khadim Diakhaté, widely reported by Sport Witness, City have pulled out of advanced negotiations to fund a blockbuster £85 million move for Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo instead. That single pivot flipped the entire market. Liverpool technically hold some interest in Ndiaye as a Gakpo replacement, but Everton won’t touch a deal with their city rivals. So north London it is.
Arsenal transfer news: Spurs and Arsenal fight for Everton star Iliman Ndiaye as City exit opens north London transfer war
Tottenham have officially named Ndiaye their top target. No ambiguity, no fallback position; they want him done. Arsenal’s position is entirely different. Arteta’s side will only enter the race if their primary pursuit of Atlético Madrid’s Julián Álvarez collapses before the deadline. Ndiaye is their plan B, nothing more.
Now, the honest assessment.
Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham need this signing badly. De Zerbi runs what you’d call provocation possession. Defenders deliberately sit on the ball, invite pressure, then spring fast vertical passes into attackers who must receive, spin, and go. Ndiaye is almost uniquely suited to that mechanism. He spent enormous chunks of his career operating as a number ten, so his spatial awareness on the half-turn with a defender at his back is genuinely elite.
His dribbling is street-level sharp. 3.12 completed take-ons per 90 minutes at Everton, and it operates in exactly the congested half-spaces De Zerbi wants his forwards attacking. Across 208 career appearances, he’s started 54 matches as a left winger, 51 as a striker, and 51 as a central attacking midfielder. That positional fluidity isn’t a marketing point. It’s a genuine structural solution.
Arsenal’s situation is completely different. Arteta’s frontline is already packed with hyper-technical, short-combination players in Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, and Havertz. That system demands physical durability and strict positional discipline on the touchline. Neither of which sits naturally with Ndiaye’s instinct to drift and demand the ball in different pockets. He’d be a luxurious square peg.
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His final-third numbers at Everton do raise a real flag. 17 goals across 74 appearances isn’t elite output, and he does show a tendency to over-dribble inside the box, going for one extra touch when the first-time shot was the correct call. Arsenal transfer news on this front will likely only develop if the Álvarez deal dies.
Tottenham’s need is structural and urgent. De Zerbi must act.