Chelsea target Hugo Ekitike can flourish in the Premier League amid talk of an £84million move from Eintracht Frankfurt. The Blues are said to be rivalled by Liverpool for the French youngster as the transfer race hots up.
Enzo Maresca’s side announced the arrival of Liam Delap last night, bolstering their forward line for next season’s Champions League campaign, but some reports claim his signing will not impact a move for Ekitike.
Reports in Germany have suggested that the Stamford Bridge side are in pole position for the former Paris Saint-Germain striker. However, Eintracht Frankfurt are said to be demanding a fee in the region of €100m.
Chelsea have a history of signing players from the Bundesliga with mixed results after Kai Havertz helped the Blues to Champions League success, while Timo Werner and Christopher Nkunku failed to make a desired impact in the Premier League.
With the free-spending at Stamford Bridge, there have been a host of players who have entered the fray and made an impact while some have fallen by the wayside.
But BILD’s Eintracht Frankfurt reporter Johannes Wolf believes he can make the transition, albeit with a settling-in period.
However, he says that the 22-year-old has a glass ceiling that he is ready to break through.
“He’s a great all-round player, he can play in almost every system,” he told football.london.
“He can play as a loan striker, he can play with another number nine – like he showed with Omar Marmoush – he even played better when you have a great player around him.
“But he can adapt to almost every system, he can play as a central nine – that’s very important, of course his great individual qualities that you don’t always see in the biggest leagues.
“He has that magical touch, how he handles the ball, he’s has great one-on-one dribbling skills and even his shot has got better.
“He still has some flaws, he still has to develop but he’s 22, how big of the steps he took in the last year-and-a-half, you can imagine where he will be in the next year and that’s why he has such a big standing already.
“I think he is, you have to look at which steps he took. He rose to the competition and I think he will need some time to adapt, like every player, even a player like Wirtz is going to take a game or two or even three or four.
“He has that quality that can make him pretty effective, not many scouts or insiders tell us here that he’s going to be the best one of the best three strikers, that’s something he can achieve if his development progresses the way it should.
“It’s a big fee but it’s how Frankfurt work and they establish their fees early on.”
