“He has agreed to join Manchester United but I just want to let him know he’ll never win trophies again”: Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola warns £99million striker who has just snubbed Man City to join Manchester United
Manchester United have made a surprise move to sign Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike, according to reports from Germany – with the Red Devils needing goals galore to turn their poor form around from the season just gone, having finished 15th in the Premier League.
Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, who were the Red Devils’ striking partnership throughout the season, only mustered seven goals between them in the Premier League, which contributed massively to United’s worst-ever finish in the competition’s history.
That has highlighted the need for a new striker to come in, and although they missed out on Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap, the club have now negotiated with Frankfurt to see if Ekitike is a deal they wish to pursue in a huge twist to their perceived pursuit of Sporting star Viktor Gyokeres.
The report by Sky Sports journalist Florian Plettenberg on X (formerly Twitter) states that United have now ‘officially’ entered the race for the young Frenchman as manager Ruben Amorim aims to boost his striking ranks.
Plettenberg claims that United made contact with the Bundesliga club over Ekitike’s signing in the past 48 hours, expressing their concrete interest in the talisman, and they have gathered all the relevant information on how much it would cost to land him.
United are in the race, but a sticking point could be his price tag – with Ekitike thought to be warranting a €100million (£84million) fee to take him to Old Trafford. Gyokeres, by contrast, may only be allowed to leave Sporting for a fee of over £60million, and so it would be a huge additional outlay from sporting director Jason Wilcox if they were to go ahead with a deal to land the France under-21 international.
Ekitike enjoyed his best-ever season in front of goal, scoring 15 goals in the Bundesliga and 22 in all competitions to help the Deutsche Bank Park outfit to third in the table, as well as the Europa League quarter-finals.
His credentials for France’s youth team saw him notch a hat-trick over England’s young Lions back in March, and so scouts in the Premier League will be more than aware of his talent – which United could look to steal a march for if they can propose a concrete offer to Dino Toppmoller’s side.
