Eddie Howe now looks like he will revisit his interest in a player who famously turned him down over a year ago.
Newcastle United looked set to acquire young, exciting striker Hugo Ekitike from Stade Reims in the summer of 2022 only for his agent to use the Newcastle deal as leverage to land Ekitike his dream move to Paris Saint-Germain.
The Toon Army was rightly furious as the way he and his agent appeared to go about things was extremely unprofessional.
Since then things have not gone too well for Ekitike at PSG, a fact which a lot of Newcastle fans have taken great joy in, but it now seems that Eddie Howe is not done with his pursuit just yet.
90mins is reporting that Newcastle could now look to loan Ekitike in January, giving the striker a chance to correct his mistake. They also claim that several other Premier League clubs remain interested, so it won't be a straightforward swoop for the Magpies.
If it comes to fruition the 21-year-old may have his work cut out for him to win over some sections of St James' Park, but it's surely nothing a couple of goals won't fix, and given the current rate our strikers are picking up injuries, he will likely get plenty of opportunities to do so.
Ekitike has played just eight minutes for PSG this season and was told in the summer he is free to leave the club after managing just 12 appearances for the Ligue 1 champions last term.
There's no doubt in our minds that Ekitike has the talent, but his attitude seems to need work and now, with the disastrous move to PSG weighing heavily on him, his confidence could well be shot too.
Eddie Howe is the kind of manager who could get the best out of Ekitike, but if it's just a loan for the remainder of the season, he may not have time to work his magic and Newcastle could be left with a dud unless the deal contains an option/obligation to buy.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
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1 |
Liverpool
|
13 | 18 | 34 |
2 |
Arsenal
|
13 | 12 | 25 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
13 | 12 | 25 |
4 |
Brighton
|
13 | 5 | 23 |
5 |
Manchester City
|
13 | 3 | 23 |
6 |
Nottingham Forest
|
13 | 3 | 22 |
7 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
13 | 14 | 20 |
8 |
Brentford
|
13 | 3 | 20 |
9 |
Manchester United
|
13 | 4 | 19 |
10 |
Fulham
|
13 | 0 | 19 |
11 |
Newcastle United
|
13 | 0 | 19 |
12 |
Aston Villa
|
13 | -3 | 19 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
13 | 1 | 18 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
13 | -7 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
13 | -11 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
13 | -11 | 10 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
13 | -7 | 9 |
18 |
Wolves
|
13 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
13 | -11 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
13 | -15 | 5 |