Newcastle United came extremely close to signing young French hot-prospect Hugo Ekitike from Reims in the summer, but the striker opted to move to Paris Saint-Germain on loan instead with Newcastle moving on to Alexander Isak.
On-again Off-again deal
The Geordie faithful were left bitterly disappointed in the summer when long-term target, Hugo Ekitike looked to be signed, sealed and delivered having agreed a £36m fee with Reims and the player himself, only for the youngster to pull the plug at the last minute and remain in France with a loan move to PSG.
While nobody can really blame Ekitike for wanting to stay a bit closer to home, he was only 19 after all, it was more the way events unfolded that really got the Toon Army’s back up. Ekitike’s agent seemed to be playing games with Newcastle, consistently postponing meetings to finalise the deal because, as it turns out, he was talking to PSG at the same time and trying to turn his client’s head in that direction.
What’s done is done, though, and Newcastle went on to sign Alexander Isak from Real Sociedad for £63m instead. A big step up in price, sure, but also a big step up in pedigree with Isak being a full Sweden international and having won trophies in Germany and Spain.
Three goals in seven games
While Isak’s time on Tyneside has been blighted by injury, he has managed to bag three goals in just seven appearances. It could have been four but he had an effort against Liverpool disallowed for offside on his debut.
Meanwhile, Hugo Ekitike is being starved of game time at PSG having made just seventeen appearances for the French champions, which might sound like a lot at first, but only eight of those were starts. He’s never completed a full 90 minutes for his new club either. He has, however, managed to grab himself three goals and three assists in those cameos.
There are rumblings that all is not well in the PSG camp with Ekitike, though, with a report coming out last week that some PSG players weren’t happy with their summer transfer business.
However, reports that PSG want to loan out Ekitike have been denied by journalist Santi Aouna, but things aren’t going well for the teenager in the French capital.
PSG have an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the season for £25.5m, so it will be interesting to see if the French giants exercise that option. That will be more telling than anything.
Time will tell
Newcastle fans have already experienced first-hand how unprofessional he can be, whether it’s him or his agent pulling the strings, neither seems to have really endeared themselves to the Toon Army.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s a good player in Hugo Ekitike, but personally, I’m glad we ended up with Isak instead.
Yes he was more expensive, and we’re yet to see the best of him thanks to a long injury lay off and his return coinciding with Newcastle’s blip in form, but I believe come the end of the season we will be thankful that things played out the way they did.
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