Iliman Ndiaye has been explaining in detail why he snubbed the chance to join Tottenham Hotspur this summer in favour of a late summer transfer window switch to Manchester City instead, and it’s not good reading for the north London outfit.
The Senegal international states that he is ready to prove that he belongs in the top tier of players after completing a £65million switch to The Etihad in the final hours of the window.
With Savio and Omar Marmoush heading to Tottenham, Man City needed extra reinforcements up front after Liverpool also decided against selling Cody Gakpo, prompting a hijack of Spurs’ bid to secure Ndiaye.
The winger’s decision to make a U-turn on moving to north London came as a crushing blow to Roberto De Zerbi, who wanted Ndiaye to take up the problematic left-sided attacking role in his side opposite Savio.
And now Ndiaye has spoken about the decision to head to City and ultimately get what he had always wanted.
“My week has been good,” he said after making his debut in a 1-0 win over Coventry.
“There was no stress or no panicking. I always say whatever comes, comes. God decides your future, it’s already written. I was just being patient and when City came through I was buzzing.
“This is where I think I belong. I’ve worked hard to get to this point.
“When I was speaking with my wife I was telling her if I had to leave Everton it would be somewhere where I know I would be playing Champions League.
“For me it was always going to be City. I wanted Champions League and playing at one of the best teams in the world.
“I’m not saying Tottenham is not but when Manchester City comes through you don’t say no.
“It’s been a good week for me and topped off with a win today.”
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Ndiaye told he ‘needs to learn’ after City debut
Meanwhile, City boss Enzo Maresca was not exactly glowing when it came to evaluating Ndiaye’s debut in the win over Frank Lampard’s plucky Coventry side.
Speaking about the club’s new signings, including midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Ayyoub Bouaddi, Maresca said: “I think we had Enzo and Iliman first game with us and then Ayyoub [Bouaddi] and Ryan McAidoo first game in front of our fans.
“That’s why for many reasons I’m happy with today’s win. I think they were all good but Ili just had two sessions with us, he needs to understand how to move.
“Most of the time he was moving in the wrong way, wrong direction but he needs to learn and for sure he’s going to learn.
“When (Marc) Guehi has the ball he was dropping a lot, and we don’t need that. We need him in the last third so he can be higher, that space was more for Josko Gvardiol to go there.
“It’s the same on this [right] side. Sometimes when Khusa[nov] has the ball Antoine [Semenyo] was dropping but he has to stretch.
“That space was for Enzo [Fernandez] but again in time they are going to learn the way we want to play.”
As for Tottenham, at least they managed to secure their first point of the season at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, although those left-wing issues Ndiaye could have solved cropped up again after De Zerbi criticised the performance of the completely ineffective Mathys Tel.
Spurs are back in action when they host Everton in the Premier League on Saturday evening, while Ndiaye is set to make his Champions League debut for City when they head to Porto on Tuesday night.