Hugo Ekitike 'agreed everything' to join Newcastle before last-gasp Liverpool U-turn

Newcastle had "agreed everything" with Hugo Ekitike when he was at Frankfurt before Liverpool swooped in and ultimately won the race for the French forward.

The Magpies missed out on a number of their targets throughout the summer but had agreed a club-record deal with the German club to sign their striker. Super-agent Ali Barat was helping to broker the deal and was close to securing his signature.

However Liverpool's late arrival to the negotiation table saw them beat Newcastle in the race to sign Ekitike, who has begun life impressively at Anfield. The Frenchman scored in his first three competitive outings, including one in the late win at St James' Park.

Missing out on the 23-year-old was one of several blows suffered by Eddie Howe during the summer transfer window and a 10-day long negotiation ultimately fell flat despite all of the relevant aspects being agreed.

Super-agent Ali Barat told TuttoSport: “Hugo Ekitike. I was working on behalf of Eintracht Frankfurt to bring him to Newcastle. I stayed in Germany for 10 days. We agreed everything with the German club and the player, then Liverpool called him and he chose Anfield.”

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Newcastle pursued Ekitike when they still had Alexander Isak on their books and had plans to play the two in tandem. Liverpool ultimately signed the striker in a deal worth £79million - but only because their initial approach for Isak had been knocked back.

Howe made no secret of his want to add the Frenchman as he sought to add more firepower to his frontline having missed out on the likes of Joao Pedro and Bryan Mbeumo. He said recently: “I think there's no doubting that I really like Hugo and have done for a number of years. He's someone that we've tracked for a long time."

Ekitike's likeness to Isak was a huge draw for the Magpies, but they ultimately had to turn their attention elsewhere. Another setback came when they acted first to sign Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig. That forced Manchester United to follow suit and the Red Devils ultimately won the race with the striker choosing them over Newcastle.

Howe did eventually get some success in the market come the final week of the window. Nick Woltemade joined from Stuttgart in a club-record deal and the German was later joined by Yoane Wissa. Newcastle had chased the Brentford striker for weeks and secured his signing on deadline day.

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