Hugo Ekitike ‘persona non grata’ at PSG after failed West Ham United transfer despite ‘concrete discussions’
Hugo Ekitike is now “persona non grata” at PSG after West Ham failed to sign him before the transfer deadline, according to Foot Mercato.
The French outlet reports on their website Thursday (7 September) that the young Paris Saint-Germain striker is likely to have a difficult time over the next few months with little prospect of featuring for the French giants barring a raft of injuries for Luis Enrique.
The 21-year-old is named the “big loser of the transfer window” after he refused to be used as a “bargaining chip” in PSG’s attempts to sign Randal Kolo Muani from Eintracht Frankfurt, and didn’t get move to the London Stadium despite “concrete discussions” with both the Hammers and the German side.
Ekitike was left out of the squad for the game against Lyon at the weekend, hasn’t been named in their Champions League list, and been warned by France under-21s boss Thierry Henry that the “fight” in Paris is going to be “terrible”.
The Irons were pushing for the former Reims man late into deadline day but their 11th hour offer was rejected by PSG.
Lose-lose
Nobody seems to have come out of this situation well, and Ekitike himself appears to now be worst off of everybody having not got a move away.
PSG have an unwanted player languishing without any chance of contributing, and they managed to sign Kolo Muani anyway so he wasn’t required for that endeavour after all.
David Moyes and West Ham aren’t showing many ill effects from their failure to land a striker so far but they ultimately came away empty-handed from a final push which would have really topped off a strong end to the window.
Michail Antonio has started the season on fire but is linked with an exit with every transfer window so there is surely scope for Ekitike to be back on the agenda come January.
Whether his asking price might have fallen by then is also a consideration since he is patently surplus to requirements at the Parc des Princes.
Since he apparently is going to be kicking his heels in France for the next four months it begs the question as to why PSG weren’t willing to sanction a late loan to east London, and Moyes will hope that he doesn’t end up rueing that decision over the coming weeks.
In other West Ham news, a secrecy agreement has been reached around the latest developments towards a signing that may still happen.