Everton manager David Moyes is digging in to keep Iliman Ndiaye out of Manchester City's reach, warning that the club has no time to reinvest any sale money before Tuesday's transfer deadline.
City are yet to table a formal bid for the Senegalese forward, who has three years left on his Goodison Park contract and turned down extension offers last season because they lacked a release clause for Champions League clubs.
Speaking on the broader question of sales, Moyes said: "I think it would be very difficult to get it reinvested if anything came in, we are getting into a really late period now."
On Ndiaye specifically, the Scotsman was blunt. "I'm certainly not encouraging a bid. I'm not encouraging that in a million years."
Everton remain keen on City's Jack Grealish, but a right-back and a centre-forward are the priority before the window shuts.
Moyes's caution stands in sharp contrast to Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear, who recently claimed the club were targeting a European push this term under owners The Friedkin Group.
The argument doing the rounds on Merseyside is whether Kinnear has talked up a target the squad cannot realistically hit, leaving Moyes to manage down expectations while still trying to strengthen a side unbeaten in their opening fixtures.
Across the north east, Sunderland boss Régis Le Bris is relishing his side's Europa League trip to face Inter Milan at San Siro, a fixture he calls "a symbol" of the Black Cats' rise.
Source: The Guardian
