Everton talks with Iliman Ndiaye advancing as Kevin Thelwell braces for five day transfer frenzy

Kevin Thelwell is on the hunt for a third summer signing with Marseille forward Iliman Ndiaye top of the wish list.

Everton are understood to be in talks with the French side over a move for the 24-year-old, who has long been of interest to the Blues.

Meanwhile, the club is braced for further interest in Jarrad Branthwaite, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s future remains uncertain. After a busy start to the transfer window, this is the state of play at Finch Farm.

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Iliman Ndiaye

Everton are exploring a deal to bring Ndiaye to the club. The forward has been on the radar of the recruitment team for some time but Everton were unable to prevent his departure from Sheffield United to southern France last summer. Despite having only spent a season at Marseille - scoring three times and creating five goals in 30 league appearances - the club is open to his exit after a tumultuous season in which the club finished eighth in Ligue 1 following a torrid start to the campaign that saw Gennaro Gattuso fired and Jean-Louis Gasset appointed as an interim manager. The club confirmed on Monday that its search for a permanent replacement had led to a deal in principle being reached with former Brighton and Hove Albion manager Roberto de Zerbi.

Against that backdrop, Everton have sought to move for Ndiaye, a player who would offer an alternative up top should Dominic Calvert-Lewin leave the club but who could also excel playing behind a front man in the role Abdoulaye Doucoure has typically occupied under Dyche. Such a move would have the added bonus of providing Dyche with the option to drop Doucoure deeper, a move that has been unavailable to him for most of his 18 months in charge given the struggle to find a suitable alternative to support Calvert-Lewin.

The ECHO understands that talks are progressing between the sides. Any deal would be a coup for Thelwell and further strengthen Dyche’s attacking options following the confirmation that Jack Harrison would return on loan from Leeds United in a move the ECHO first reported as being an ambition of the club’s back in mid-May.

Jarrad Branthwaite

Everton are braced for further interest from Manchester United for Branthwaite. The club has threatened to walk away from talks if it believes Everton are attempting to hold it to ransom but is yet to have done so. The club remains heavily interested in the centre back and there is a growing anticipation that an improved offer will follow the initial £35m, plus £8m in add-ons, that was rejected by the Blues as unacceptable. What the Red Devils do next will indicate how serious they are in a player who has enjoyed a remarkable 18 months in his rise to becoming one Europe’s hottest defensive prospects. Should they produce a derisory second bid it may undermine their credibility in the transfer market - something new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is desperately trying to rebuild after years of overpaying for players signed with little sign of an underlying strategy. But optics as well as money will play a part in this now. Ratcliffe and co will have to decide how much PR really matters if they genuinely believe there is an opportunity to sign such an immense talent. Everton value him significantly in excess of the opening bid and are keen for a player they see as vital to the first team remaining at Goodison Park. The advice of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who managed Branthwaite in his breakthrough year in senior football at PSV Eindhoven, may be influential with the former striker set to join his old side’s coaching staff.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Newcastle United withdrew from their pursuit of Calvert-Lewin on Monday, days after making an enquiry over the availability of the forward. The club’s interest had been longstanding and he is viewed with admiration at St James’ Park, where he stepped up in the final minutes to score a crucial penalty for Everton in April. The fineprint of any deal would have taken some negotiating, with the future of Callum Wilson thought to be key to the Magpies’ efforts in the market this summer. He has interest from West Ham United and clubs in Saudi Arabia. West Ham have also been monitoring Calvert-Lewin for a long time, the club’s interest pre-dating the arrival of new boss Julen Lopetegui and back to David Moyes’ reign. Calvert-Lewin also happened to score in the away game at West Ham last season.

What happens next remains unclear. Calvert-Lewin would be the toughest player to replace should he depart, his goals, experience and his central role to a system that relies on someone of his attributes in order to function, all key factors. There is little expectation Everton could replace him without taking a risk - though a deal for Ndiaye would strengthen forward options that will also include Beto, Youssef Chermiti and Neal Maupay when pre-season begins. But the Blues have a dilemma with the 27-year-old yet to sign the new deal offered to him in recent weeks. Should he opt against penning that contract then he will enter the final 12 months of his deal and be available for a free next season.

Calvert-Lewin’s future depends on whether Newcastle or any other side attempts to prise him from Dyche’s squad. If one does then Dyche and Thelwell will have what may prove to be their toughest decision of the summer.

Amadou Onana

Amadou Onana, currently at the Euros with Belgium, is another player who is attracting interest this summer. There is little doubt about the central midfielder’s quality but while he is one of the most talented players in Dyche’s squad, his departure would be considered should a club be willing to meet the £50m starting price the Blues have set for negotiations, as reported by the ECHO earlier this month. That value is a reduction on where things stood 12 months ago, when Onana was benchmarked against the deal that took Moises Caicedo to Chelsea from Brighton, but the landscape has changed since then - mainly due to the Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) and the severity with which Everton was prosecuted under them. The value is also part of a pragmatic approach to the summer. Onana has been vocal about his ambition to test himself at clubs vying for trophies in the coming years. And with external interest around players who are essential to the first team such as Branthwaite and Calvert-Lewin, Onana is a player who could attract a big fee without seriously undermining Dyche’s plans - he is not guaranteed to start under Dyche, who left him on the bench for each of the three crucial games that redefined Everton's season in a week of wins back in April.

Arsenal, long-term admirers, made contact earlier this month and Newcastle and Manchester United are among the Premier League clubs that have monitored Onana at various times this year. A move abroad is not out of the question, however, with Bayern Munich understood to be tracking the 22-year-old - interest that may have been strengthened by the arrival as manager of Belgium legend Vincent Kompany.

Key positions left to look at

Everton have consolidated last season’s squad and already sought to strengthen. A key area has been central midfield and the arrival of Tim Iroegbunam represents an addition that could help in that area. The 20-year-old has limited Premier League experience but is a young player who was available at a small price and who has the potential to develop - the type of signing Thelwell has identified as his preferred model for recruitment. He is unlikely to mount a serious challenge for the starting XI at first but is another option from the bench or as cover for a squad that will see Andre Gomes leave at the end of his contract in the coming days and which will also lose Lewis Warrington, the academy midfielder who made his Premier league debut in the penultimate game of last season, after he was not offered a new deal. Should Ndiaye arrive then Dyche will have the opportunity to bring Doucoure deeper, providing options of Doucoure, Idrissa Gueye, James Garner and Iroegbunam for the two players who would sit behind Ndiaye if he played as a support striker. Whether an additional recruit would be needed would largely depend on the future of Onana, with other areas the priority should he remain. While Jack Harrison’s return on loan from Leeds United is another boost, Everton are still desperately short of wingers. Dwight McNeil and Harrison were the preferred wide options last season and will both be available in Goodison’s final year. But the conclusion of Arnaut Danjuma’s loan deal and Lewis Dobbin’s sale to Aston Villa means they are the only natural wide players in the squad. Ashley Young has extended his contract and has played on both flanks in his career and Garner has been used on the right when needed, but attacking wide players are in short supply and finding options, particularly with pace, is important. This is partly why the potential for Everton to sign Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle gained so much traction amid the Magpies’ interest in Calvert-Lewin. The teenager was priced above Everton’s means but a deal for Calvert-Lewin could have created the conditions that would have made it viable. That ended when Newcastle walked away from Calvert-Lewin talks but Everton’s need to find attacking options out wide remains obvious.

So too does the requirement to find a solution at right back. Seamus Coleman signing an extension offers one option, and Young’s agreement to a further 12 months offers further cover. But neither would be a long term answer to a problem that has plagued Dyche. It could be Nathan Patterson, but the 22-year-old has been blighted by injury misfortune since his arrival in January 2022. Each of the three seasons he has been with the Blues have ended in injury and he finished the most recent campaign with surgery to his hamstring. He is understood to be progressing well in his recovery and this summer is a major opportunity for him. The other option used by Dyche is Ben Godfrey, though his development at Everton has been stunted by his versatility and, with him entering the final 12 months of his contract this summer, his future is also uncertain. All of this means there is a case for Everton assessing the right back situation depending on where the window takes them, though replacing any senior departures that do go would also define priorities.

Profit and Sustainability Regulations

Everton entered the opening weeks of the summer transfer window knowing there was still work to do if the club was to comply with Profit and Sustainability Regulations for the first time in three years - and thus avoid a third points deduction. Precisely where Everton sit in relation to the three year, £105m loss threshold is unclear - it will be another nine months before the accounts for the financial year that ends on Sunday become public.

But we do have guidelines. Last year, club losses of £89m led to a PSR loss of £62.7m once allowable deductions were made. The year before, the PSR overspend was judged to be £3.9m. This leaves Everton with a maximum PSR overspend of just over £38m for the current year.

So Everton need to improve on last year’s PSR losses by around £25m. From the outside, some progress is visible. This year has not seen £10m in pay-offs for departing boardroom and coaching staff, the higher league finish should lead to an increase in merit payment of around £5m and the wage bill is likely to have come down slightly. If you add in the sale of Dobbin for around £10m and you begin to enter territory where compliance might be possible. What is unknown is the extent to which other costs, for instance interest costs on the club’s debt, have changed. The previous year also saw the boost of the £40m sale of Anthony Gordon, though the sales this year of Demarai Gray, Alex Iwobi and Tom Cannon will have helped Everton move towards replicating that PSR boost in this accounting period.

The result is that there may still be work for Everton to do, and therefore another sale would be useful before the end of the month, but there is a chance compliance could be achieved with smaller deals - for instance should offers come in for the likes of Mason Holgate or Maupay, who each spent last season on loan, or for some of Everton’s most promising academy youngsters. Should Ndiaye join for an initial fee before the end of the week, the hole Everton would need to plug would grow.

While the arrival of the Friedkin Group as the prospective new owners of the club has eased immediate cashflow concerns, the PSR problem will remain live for sometime - Everton already face a tough task to stay within the limits for the accounting period that begins in July, so a big sale of someone such as Onana holds value even after this week. There is also an outstanding issue with the Premier League over interest on loans the club said were for the new stadium. Should Everton lose that dispute it would make the staying within the regulatory parameters even tougher, though the failure to have resolved that issue in a timely fashion has hindered the club’s ability to work out precisely where it stands heading into the final weeks of the football financial year.