One of the more peculiar transfer sagas this summer has involved Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike and Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak – with Liverpool as the other club involved.
Essentially, Liverpool showed an interest in Isak – with Newcastle looking at Ekitike as a replacement if he was to leave the club (though some say they wanted them to play together). At the same time, Liverpool were interested in the Frenchman if they could not get Isak out of Tyneside.
In theory, this is something that could have gone all summer – but it looks to have reached a swift end – with David Ornstein and Seb Stafford-Bloor of the Athletic tonight reporting that there is an outline agreement between Liverpool and Frankfurt for the signature of Ekitike.
The report states that, if all add-ons are met, the deal could surpass Frankfurt’s record sale of Randal Kolo Muani to PSG in 2023. That sale was €95million (£82.3m), so it would be quite the sale to surpass that.
As always, it is worth mentioning that, like with any deal, if the add-ons are met it almost certainly means that the Frenchman will have been a success on Merseyside, so will they be that bothered?
Sure, if it doesn’t work out for him, and the add-ons aren’t met, it will have been a huge outlay of money, but there is optimism that things will go well for a very talented player.
Last season in the Bundesliga, the 23-year old scored 15 goals, provided eight assists, and created 12 big chances in 33 outings and around 28.6 full 90’s.
Although a move to PSG a few years ago did not work out for Ekitike, it would be harsh to use that against him. He was only 20 when he made that move, and his game has come on leaps and bounds in the last 18 months at Frankfurt.
Arne Slot’s side will be getting a striker who takes care of the ball a lot better than Darwin Núñez, with a much cleaner and more polished game than the Uruguayan.
Whilst not quite as athletic as his new team mate, he is certainly no slouch and is quick off the mark for someone of his height. He is able to use his body well to ride contact and fend off defenders.
With elite coaching like Slot can provide, it is hard to not the striker not getting better and better too. There is a huge upside to this deal and shows the ambition of the club.
Furthermore, he couldn’t ask for better service to get at a new club. In the Bundesliga last season, Florian Wirtz created 17 big chances in just 2355 minutes (roughly one every 138 mins), and Mo Salah created 27 big chances in 3377 minutes – roughly one created every 125 minutes.
Elsewhere, Dominik Szoboszlai created 12 big chances in 2496 minutes – one every 208 minutes, and Cody Gakpo created 11 big chances in 1945 minutes – one every 176 minutes or so. In short, there are several players who will be able to create good chances for Ekitkike in this side.
It will be interesting to see how Slot lines up next season. My hunch would be Wirtz off the left, Salah off the right, Szobozslai as the ten, and Ekitike up front. Pretty mouth watering you have to say.
Some expect Szoboszlai to come out of the team, but with very attack minded full backs in Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, it feels like the Hungarian’s tenacity is required as a balancer, particularly with Liverpool not having an out and out defensive midfielder.
With compatriot Kerkez flying high down the left hand side, that will give Wirtz license to tuck inside and play as an attacking midfielder in possession. It may not be too dissimilar to his “wide ten” role he played at Bayer Leverkusen.
On paper, an incredible left side dynamic. Kerkez getting crosses in whilst Wirtz cuts inside and threads through balls. Then on the other side, there is Salah with the license to cut inside and link up with Ekitike whilst Frimpong bombs down and provides the width.
Even with Szoboszlai, there will still be some question marks defensively, but going forward this is better than any attack can boast in the Premier League, and by quite a margin too, you would say.
So, although there may understandably be some eyebrows raised – the aforementioned record sale of Kolo Muani clearly did not work out – as well as the likes of Seb Haller and Luka Jovic, but Liverpool are getting a player who will have elite coaching, and even better service.
Sure, in theory any striker would be getting that top class coaching and service, but Ekitike already has the raw tools and attributes to make it work it out on top of that. An exciting signing.
