David Moyes has admitted Everton did not want to lose Iliman Ndiaye after the forward completed his £65million move to City on Deadline Day.
Ndiaye’s departure was one of the biggest decisions of Everton’s summer after he established himself as a key part of Moyes’s side.
Speaking for the first time since the transfer window closed, the manager made his feelings on the departure clear.
“We didn’t want to lose Illy,” Moyes said.
Moyes also addresses Everton finances
Elsewhere during his press conference, Moyes acknowledged the financial considerations Everton faced during the window.
“I don’t do the financials, but we did need to get money,” he said.
There is an important distinction to make.
Moyes did not, on the evidence currently available, say Ndiaye was sold because Everton needed the money. The two comments should therefore not be presented as cause and effect.
They do, however, provide further context to a Deadline Day on which Everton also sold Beto before they attempted to sign Folarin Balogun ultimately collapsed.
Moyes was candid about the window as a whole too, saying some things had gone against Everton while acknowledging there were things the club “could have done better”.
The manager has subsequently been left with a very different attacking group.
Ndiaye is gone. Beto is gone. Balogun never arrived.
Jack Grealish returned, and other additions were made, but Thierno Barry emerged from the window as Everton’s only recognised senior centre-forward.
The £65m received for Ndiaye was a substantial piece of business for the club.
Moyes’s comments make something else clear: from the manager’s perspective, losing the player was not the preferred outcome.
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