Ex-EFC scout blasts Friedkin Group for selling Everton player £20m below his true value

Everton should not have accepted anything less than £80million for Iliman Ndiaye this summer.

That is the opinion of former senior Everton scout, Bryan King, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.

The 26-year-old is heading to Manchester City for £65m, despite having appeared to be signing for Tottenham just hours before.

The Lilywhites had agreed a £60m deal for Ndiaye, with Richarlison set to go the other way for £35m, but both agreements broke down when the Brazilian could not agree personal terms.

Hours before, Everton had backed out of a £40m deal that Nottingham Forest had been close to agreeing for Harrison Armstrong due to the outraged response of the fans.

There is some suggestion that the Toffees were in need of a sale and became open to Ndiaye's departure in light of the decision to keep Armstrong at the club.

Everton 'desperate for £60m'

Ndiaye has rejected several contract offers at Everton, and there has long been an acceptance that he will leave at some stage.

With three years remaining on his contract, however, fans did not expect that it would come this summer and certainly not at this stage of the window.

It was expected that the Toffees would demand in the region of £80m when that day did come, but they have instead allowed Ndiaye to leave for a fee considered well below the market rate.

"Who sold him? The Friedkin Group. I think it's cheap. Ndiaye is cheap for what he is and what he's done," King told Football Insider.

"If I'd have been the Friedkin Group, he wouldn't have left that football club for under £80m. Are they that desperate for £60m?" 

How do Everton replace Ndiaye's impact?

While Jack Grealish is closing in on a return to Everton this summer, he does not replace everything lost with Ndiaye's departure.

The Senegal international is one of the most productive dribblers in the Premier League and has the pace that Grealish simply does not.

With him gone, there will be a hole in the Everton squad to be filled for such a presence.

Brennan Johnson is the likely candidate to step forward, but Tyler Dibling and Tyrique George will also be involved in that conversation.