Liverpool are not stressing about signing Hugo Ekitike despite Manchester United entering the race for the highly rated 22-year-old German striker.
I voiced my concerns about signing Ekitike for £85m (€100m) yesterday after Frankfurt CEO Markus Krosche publicly sent a message to interested parties seeking to poach him this summer.
“If the price isn’t right, then he’ll simply stay with us,” Krösche said to regional paper Wiesbadener Kurier as quoted by Bulinews.
“We don’t have to sell Hugo.”
However, the latest reports from German football journalist Florian Plettenberg suggests Liverpool remain seriously interested and are actually quite relaxed about signing him.
Manchester United have “officially” entered the race to sign Hugo Ekitike but Liverpool are relaxed about £85m transfer
According to an update Plettigoal made on Thursday evening, Manchester United have “officially” entered the race to sign Ekitike after they “made contact” with Frankfurt to express their “concrete interest and gathered all relevant information.”
Now, tonight the reporter says Liverpool “see themselves having a very good chance in the race for Hugo Ekitike.”
He did caveat that by saying they have “clearly signalled” to Frankfurt and Ekitike that “they still need some time, as sales (including Darwin Nunez) need to happen first. Ekitike is aware of this.”
It seems all parties are very relaxed – including the player.
Meanwhile Chelsea remain interested despite their talks during the mini transfer window falling through.
Manchester United, for their part, have “called Frankfurt” but they don’t seem to have made any significant steps towards signing the young striker.
?? Liverpool see themselves having a very good chance in the race for Hugo #Ekitike. However, they have clearly signalled that they still need some time, as sales (including Darwin Nunez) need to happen first. Ekitike is aware of this. #LFC
Chelsea remain in the race.… pic.twitter.com/Ed6ygi73FG
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) June 13, 2025
Yesterday, I said Ekitike is a risk at £85m – today I will attempt to argue the opposite
Liverpool are clearly serious about Ekitike and so I will not revise my view that Ekitike may be an unnecessary risk in a summer that has already seen them smash the Premier League transfer record, but I will look at the stats and facts that suggest signing the German is worth the dosh.
The base level stats suggest that Ekitike is every bit the player Liverpool need at centre-forward next season. 22 goals and 12 assists in 48 games is a wonderful return for a 22-year-old striker.
One thing I do love about Ekitike aside from his fluid and technical style of play is the fact that he isn’t very injury prone. He’s only young but aside from one hamstring injury in 2021/22 and a overstreching his knee in November 2024 (0 games missed), he has a clean bill of health.
Taking a deeper look at his Fbref profile, he ranks very highly in some of the most positive aspects of a forward’s game.
The most important being how many shot-creating actions he makes. Per 90 minutes, Ekitike makes 3.5 shot-creating actions which puts him in the 94th percentile of all strikers in Europe’s top five leagues. For reference, Mo Salah makes 4.29 while Luis Diaz averages 4.34.
It’s no guarantee of goals but as Ekitike’s tally this season suggests, he doesn’t neccessarily need help scoring goals.
Overall, the jury is out (at least from perspective) over whether or not Ekitike is worth £85m.
But hey! It’s not our money… If Ol’ John Henry reckons it’s worth it, I’ll sit back and enjoy the show.
