Newcastle United signings that come out of nowhere are often the best ones, and Hugo Ektike might just follow that trend.
Sandro Tonali’s £55m move from AC Milan and Alexander Isak’s £63m arrival from Real Sociedad happened quickly and were largely kept under wraps.
Newcastle have clearly tried to do similar with Ekitike, with Sky Sports’ Keith Downie revealing earlier that Newcastle were in Germany last week to hold talks over a deal before the player’s entourage came to our training camp in Austria yesterday to push through a deal.
The club are clearly working overtime to get this wrapped up and, in a bold new report for ESPN, French journalist Julien Laurens states that Newcastle are ‘on the verge’ of finalising a deal worth €80m (£69.5m) with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Laurens claims that Ekitike’s agent Ali Barat has been ironing out the ‘last few details’ with Toon chiefs ahead of a club-record transfer.
The French journalist even states that personal terms have been agreed over a five-year deal and that the 23-year-old is ‘ready for his medical’, suggesting it is all done on the player’s side and the finer details are being finalised.
Huge claims and we’ll have to hope they are true, with a move for Ekitike not only landing us a long-term target and another attacker alongside £52m recruit Anthony Elanga, but a quality and versatile forward able to play just off Isak up top.
Ekitike delivered 22 goals and 12 assists in all competitions last season and is a France under-21 international, scoring five goals in five outings for his country.
Hugo played a lot on the lefts side with marmoush at Frankfurt but he can also play on the right or as a sole centre forward .. will be a good deal if we can get him ..looks like Liverpool were waiting until Darwin Nunez was cashed in before bids for Hugo .. newcastle moving fast …elanga .Ekitike .isak. Gordon …the front row looks scary good
Mike(Quote)
Sounds to good to be true, but like they state our best transfer deals took no time at all.
Let’s dream though, what a deal that would be though, wow 👌 hwtl
Kiddafromthetoon(Quote)
I think you are stretching it a bit suggesting this is “out of nowhere” Olly.
We’ve been connected to the lad for over a year now, and as soon as it was released that Frankfurt were happy to get rid, we were “linked” (I hate that word – it means nothing) again.
Daveys **** mate(Quote)
Think you’ve taken that wording the wrong way. I’m not saying he was never a name we’ve been linked to and one out of the blue in that sense, I’m saying it is a move that (this summer) barely got a mention, then bang – it’s all coming out that we’ve been in talks for over a week and it’s actually quite close.
Clearly done a lot of work on this in private (as we should do) before it all came out, much like Tonali and Isak.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
I pray we can strike a deal quickly!
X.Y,WHY,MAN.(Quote)
Looking like a Keegan side. It doesn’t matter how many we concede, we just need to score one more.
Hobo(Quote)
4 up front .. what about the back.. 3 across middle 3 at back then… dodgy that don’t like it
Fitchy(Quote)
Acquisition of Ekitike is more than suggesting Isak is heading to Liverpool.
Tonny Mutesasira(Quote)
How can you get it sooo wrong that it’s embarrassing. Yet this headline keeps popping up on my feed. You should bury this.
Glenn(Quote)