Liverpool’s Gakpo stand forced City into a £65m fallback buy

Manchester City have wrapped up a transfer for Iliman Ndiaye worth £65 million, but Liverpool supporters should read this deal for what it actually reveals rather than just another Everton departure. City only turned to Ndiaye after a far bigger offer for Cody Gakpo was firmly knocked back on Merseyside, and that refusal tells us more about this squad’s priorities than the fee City ended up paying elsewhere.

The £80m bid that got nowhere

City’s opening move this window was not for Ndiaye at all. They wanted Gakpo, and they were reportedly prepared to pay close to £80 million to get him. Liverpool said no. Some reports even suggested the Dutchman himself would have been open to weighing up a move to the champions, which only makes Liverpool’s refusal more significant rather than less.

With the transfer window closing fast and no obvious like for like replacement lined up, sanctioning that sale was never realistic for Liverpool. Gakpo is not just a source of goals and assists. He can play across the front line, drop into central areas, or lead the line when needed, and that kind of flexibility matters over the course of a long, demanding season. Letting him leave for a domestic rival without a plan B in place would have been reckless business, whatever the number attached to it.

There is also a competitive dimension worth acknowledging here. Strengthening a direct title rival midway through a window rarely makes sense unless the money is transformative and the succession plan is already sorted. Neither condition applied in this case, so Liverpool held their ground and let the conversation end there.

Andoni Iraola’s side head into the closing stretch of the window already reshaped in several key areas, and every fringe attacking option retained now carries genuine weight for a squad still adjusting to life under a new head coach. Keeping proven Premier League quality like Gakpo around, rather than losing him and scrambling late for a replacement, is the kind of low key discipline that tends to define a successful window far more than the marquee arrivals ever do.

How City ended up with Ndiaye instead

Blocked on Gakpo, City needed an alternative forward before deadline day, particularly having already sold both Savinho and Omar Marmoush earlier in the window. Ndiaye had reportedly been heading towards Tottenham Hotspur after Spurs and Everton found common ground over the weekend, with a separate scenario involving Richarlison returning to Goodison Park also doing the rounds. When that route stalled, City moved quickly to revive their interest in the Senegal international.

According to David Ornstein’s reporting for The Athletic, the fee agreed is £60 million up front with a further £5 million payable in add-ons, and Ndiaye is expected to undergo a medical on Tuesday morning. Everton, for their part, will bank a substantial profit on a player they signed from Marseille for just £15 million back in 2024. Since then he has managed 17 goals and four assists in 73 appearances, and he started each of Everton’s opening three league games of this campaign, picking up an assist against Crystal Palace along the way. Ndiaye had also turned down more than one contract offer from Everton despite having three years left to run on his existing terms, and by all accounts he handled the speculation professionally throughout.

The real takeaway for Liverpool

Strip away the Ndiaye specifics and the number that matters most to Liverpool supporters is £80 million, the valuation City were reportedly willing to place on Gakpo before settling for someone else instead. That is a serious marker of where he now sits in the estimation of one of Europe’s wealthiest clubs, even if his own campaign so far has not always guaranteed him a starting shirt. Recruitment decisions are never just about accepting the biggest number on the table. Timing, squad balance, and who exactly is doing the buying all factor into it, and on this occasion those factors pointed firmly towards keeping hold of a player City clearly rated far more highly than a squad option.

None of this guarantees Ndiaye will not thrive at the Etihad. He has shown enough during his time at Everton, in energy, ball carrying, and defensive work rate, to suggest he can handle the step up, even if his profile is less eye catching than some of City’s recent forward signings. But the story here belongs to Liverpool as much as it does to City or Everton. Faced with a tempting offer for one of their most adaptable attackers, Liverpool chose squad needs over a quick windfall, and in doing so forced a direct rival to go elsewhere and spend heavily to solve a problem Liverpool had already declined to hand them. City have their forward, Everton have a transformative fee, and Ndiaye gets his shot at one of the country’s biggest clubs. Liverpool, meanwhile, still have Gakpo. In a transfer market too often reduced to headline numbers, that quieter outcome might turn out to be the one that matters most.