Newcastle United may realistically step out of the race for the relocation of Aintrak Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitique due to his asking price.
The talented young Frenchman enjoys a great season, contributing to impressive 21 goals and eight assists in all competitions overall.
Arsenal and Liverpool are one of Ekitique’s transfer recruits Catch off side As revealed previously, Newcastle is also something to watch.
Still, their hopes may decline as Build reports that Aintrak Frankfurt will demand £77 million to get Ekitique to go this summer.
Additional information from Geordie Boot Boys says this looks like a magpie blow.
The Hugo Ekitike Transfer looks out of reach of Newcastle
Ekitique will definitely be an exciting Newcastle signature, but now clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool certainly have advantages.
The only way NUFC can buy Ekitike is probably to cash in some of the names of other stars, like Alexander Isak, and they don’t want to do that.
To be fair, Ekitike would be a great alternative if they end up losing ISAK this summer, but that’s still a scenario they’d rather avoid.
£77 million doesn’t look like much money for clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool to pay. Both will need to make large investments this summer.
Gunner is currently playing Mikel Merino as a makeshift striker after being injured by Kai Herberts and Gabriel Jesus, but he already needed something different in that position anyway.
Meanwhile, Liverpool has a great campaign, but Darwin Nunes looks like an obvious weakness on the Arne Slot team.
Ekitike appears to be able to upgrade Reds needs in that department. It’s certainly difficult to imagine someone before 22 years old going to stay in Frankfurt for a much longer period of time.