It seems increasingly likely that Hugo Ekitike will be playing in the Premier League next season, but for which club remains anyone’s guess.
On Sunday evening, Florian Plettenberg reported (via X) that Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are all in the race for the Eintracht Frankfurt striker, with the Old Trafford outfit contacting the player’s agents over the weekend as they registered a ‘concrete interest’ in him.
That followed on from Christian Falk’s claim that the Reds are indeed interested in the 22-year-old, for whom the Bundesliga side are demanding at least €100m (£85.2m).
Romano shares Ekitike transfer update
In his exclusive GIVEMESPORT newsletter, Fabrizio Romano outlined that Ekitike has spoken to the aforementioned Premier League trio and is keeping his options open for now, with no clear preference for any single suitor as of yet.
The Italian transfer guru wrote: “He’s considering all options and still talking to all these clubs [Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea]. No decision has been made yet.”
In a subsequent update for CaughtOffside, Romano added that a deal will not be easy to pull off and will ‘clearly be expensive’ for whoever succeeds in signing him.
Do Liverpool have the scope to go big for Ekitike this summer?
Whenever Ekitike decides which of those three clubs to join, he’ll have his reasons for preferring one candidate over the others. From a purely footballing point of view, though, Liverpool should be in with a strong chance of winning the race for the Frenchman.
The probable exit of Darwin Nunez this summer amid interest from Serie A and Saudi Arabia would open the door for the 22-year-old to go straight into Arne Slot’s strongest XI. Also, barring a substantial drop-off from the Reds next season, he’d be at a club who’ll be contending for (and quite possibly winning) major silverware.
He certainly won’t come cheap, but if LFC can reclaim most of the initial £64m that they spent on their current number 9 in 2022, that should give them the financial wriggle room to submit a viable offer for the Frenchman.
In Ekitike, Liverpool would be getting a young centre-forward who’s already proven to be prolific at a high level in Europe (22 goals and 12 assists in 48 games last season) while also boasting some very impressive underlying performance numbers.
As per FBref, he ranks among the top 10% of strikers in Europe’s five main leagues with his match averages for non-penalty xG (0.6), assists (0.29), shots (3.74), shot-creating actions (3.5), progressive carries (3.04) and successful take-ons (1.9).
It duly comes as no surprise that Eintracht want around £85m for him, and whether the Reds can afford another big-money splurge this summer after Florian Wirtz remains to be seen, but FSG mustn’t let either Man United or Chelsea steal too much of a march in this transfer race without pursuing him to their permissible maximum.
