Oumar Niasse reportedly moving to Cardiff City on loan

Everton striker Oumar Niasse is reportedly moving to Cardiff City on loan until the end of the season.

As reported by Sky Sports, Everton forward Oumar Niasse is set to move to Cardiff City on loan until the end of the season. Niasse has never really fit in at Everton and we need only look at his history in the club to verify that.

Niasse was signed by then manager Roberto Martinez on the January transfer window deadline day of the 2015/16 season for a fee of £13.5 million from Lokomotiv Moscow. However, he rarely featured for the remainder of the season, making just seven appearances for the club and scoring no goals.

Once Martinez was sacked and Ronald Koeman was hired, Niasse immediately fell-out with his new manager. Koeman was quoted as saying “If Niasse likes to play football he needs to leave Everton” during the Summer transfer window of 2016. Niasse was also initially not given a squad number by Koeman.

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However, once the deadline day passed without Niasse being sold he was named in the squad. This was not the end of the bad blood between Koeman and Niasse though as he was demoted to the under-23 squad and had his personal locker revoked just one month into the season. He was then loaned to Hull City in January without making an appearance for Everton.

After returning to the club for the 2017/18 season, Koeman started to utilise Niasse more. He made twenty-eight appearances for Everton and scored nine goals and also earned the dubious honour of being the first player suspended under the new “successful deception of a match official” rule after he dove to win Everton a penalty.

The Senegalese international was most likely happy to see Koeman go at the end of the season but he’s found no luck with new manager Marco Silva having made only five substitute appearances for a combined total play time of under an hour.

Though Everton needs a dedicated striker, Niasse has clearly been deemed unfit for the role. Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison have been serving Everton up forward so far this season and it’s likely to remain that way unless Everton brings in a new striker this window.

Cardiff City is currently seventeenth place in the Premier League and has one of the worst goal-scoring records in the league. Niasse is certainly capable of causing a bit of panic in the opposition with his strength and pace, he is just let down by his touch and footwork which leave a lot to be desired.

This loan move is a chance for Niasse to prove himself as a goalscorer, he could possibly return to Everton a better player but it’s more likely that this could be the end of Niasse’s Everton career. His stock has degraded since his time in Russia so it looks like yet another player that Everton will make a loss on for little-to-no return.