Liverpool Intensify Search for Attacking Reinforcements
Liverpool are running out of summer. And the clock is starting to get loud.
With the 2025-26 window edging towards its close, the Anfield rebuild under Andoni Iraola still feels incomplete. Three signings are through the door, but everyone around the club knows that won’t be enough if Liverpool genuinely plan to crash the Premier League title race. Another three or four? That’s the kind of volume people inside and outside the club keep talking about.
The problem: time. The solution: urgency. And Liverpool finally look like they’re acting with it.
Liverpool step up attacking search
The attack is the glaring issue. Mohamed Salah has gone, Hugo Ekitike is out injured, and the front line suddenly looks thin in both depth and star power.
Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye sit closest to a move, but neither deal is agreed — no transfer fees settled, no personal terms finalised. After missing out on Yan Diomande earlier in the summer, Liverpool know they can’t pin everything on one or two targets and hope the market bends to their will.
So they’ve widened the net. And they’ve gone somewhere almost unthinkable.
According to Caught Offside, Liverpool have held “direct talks” with the representatives of Everton forward Iliman Ndiaye over a possible move. For a club that almost never does business with their neighbours across Stanley Park, that alone is a headline.
“Sources in the industry confirm that Liverpool’s interest in Ndiaye is genuine,” the report states, noting how rare it is for the Reds to go near a deal with their Merseyside rivals. The piece suggests this could reflect concern about landing Barcola, or perhaps a tactical play to pressure PSG into lowering their demands for a player who wants out.
The motives aren’t clear, but one thing is: Liverpool have spoken directly to Ndiaye’s camp. That takes this beyond idle speculation and into the realm of a move that could actually happen.
A derby shocker in the making?
For Everton, Ndiaye is a cornerstone. Selling him across the city would be unthinkable unless the offer is too big to ignore.
Caught Offside report that Everton value the Senegal international at around £75 million. Any bid from Liverpool, given the rivalry and political cost, would likely need to go beyond that. The Toffees would want a premium, not parity.
Ndiaye brings versatility and league know-how that would immediately appeal to Iraola. He can operate on either wing or as a No.10, and he already has significant Premier League experience. Tactically, he ticks a lot of boxes for a coach who wants fluid movement and aggression in the final third.
He is not Salah. No one at Liverpool is pretending otherwise. But nine goal contributions last season hint at a player still climbing, not one at his ceiling. In a more dominant attacking side, that output could grow.
The competition, though, would be fierce. Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all named as clubs with a stronger chance of doing a deal, and if David Moyes — now in charge at Everton — were to push the price north of £100 million, Liverpool would step away. They simply wouldn’t sanction that kind of fee.
That’s what makes the current situation so intriguing. Liverpool are in the conversation for a player who, in normal circumstances, would be ring-fenced by Everton, especially from Anfield.
The odds remain against a move across Stanley Park. The politics, the price, the pressure — all of it leans that way. But the fact Liverpool are even at the table, holding direct talks with Ndiaye’s camp, underlines just how serious they are about reshaping this attack before the window slams shut.
If they somehow find a way to pull it off, it wouldn’t just be a smart signing.
It would be one of the most audacious transfer moves of their modern era.
