Everton's wild deadline day: Ndiaye to Man City for £65m, Grealish back on loan, Balogun in
Seven deals in a single day, a £65m sale to Manchester City that snatched the player from Tottenham, and a squad that will look nothing like yesterday's by 23:00. Everything Everton are doing before the window shuts.
If you want to understand what a deadline day looks like from the inside, watch Everton today. In the space of a few hours the club is selling its best forward, buying two replacements, sending three more players out and reshaping an entire attack, with the English window closing at 22:00 GMT. Seven deals, one afternoon.
The sale that started it all: Ndiaye to Manchester City
Iliman Ndiaye is heading to Manchester City for £65 million, made up of £60 million guaranteed plus £5 million in bonuses. The 26-year-old Senegal forward had been the subject of advanced talks with Tottenham only two days ago, in a deal that would have taken Richarlison the other way. City moved yesterday and took the deal off them.
The Tottenham route has now collapsed entirely: Richarlison will not be joining Everton, because a Turkish club has put more money on the table for him.
The return: Grealish, again
In comes Jack Grealish, from City, on a straight season-long loan with no purchase option attached, medical scheduled for this morning. It is a reunion rather than a signing: he already spent last season at Goodison on loan, a spell cut short by a serious injury after two goals and six assists in twenty-two appearances.
The second arrival is bigger in money terms. Folarin Balogun is coming from Monaco for €45 million plus €5 million in bonuses on a four-year deal, and his arrival is tied to one condition: Beto leaving.
And the ones going out
Beto is heading to Fiorentina, with Everton having accepted an offer of around €20 million; his exit is what unlocks Balogun. Tim Iroegbunam, 23, goes to Hull City in a package worth £22 million, £13 million up front plus £9 million in add-ons. Nathan Patterson joins Torino permanently on a three-year deal for £850,000, with Everton keeping 30 per cent of any future sale. And Adam Aznou, a 20-year-old full-back, goes to Málaga on loan.
One warning that matters
None of this is official yet. Every deal listed above is an agreement between clubs with medicals in progress, reported by the major British outlets and the specialist reporters, and not a single one has been confirmed by a club statement at the time of writing. On a day like this the difference is not academic: deals collapse in the final hour, and paperwork that misses the deadline does not count.
There is also a gap worth flagging. The David Moyes quotes circulating today, saying the club is in no hurry to sell its best players and has had no contact from anyone, date from before City hijacked the Ndiaye deal. He has not commented since. Anyone presenting those words as his reaction to today is using them out of time.
The strangest part: they were doing well
All of this is happening to a team that had started the season unbeaten, sitting seventh with four points from two games, one win and one draw. Premier League squads are rarely rebuilt from a position of calm; Everton are doing it anyway, and by tonight the forward line Moyes picks on Saturday will be almost entirely different from the one he had last week.
All our match predictions stay updated until kick-off on the Premier League page, and the individual player calls are in the Player Predictions section. We will update this piece as the deals are confirmed, or as they fall through.
