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Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak dominated this summer’s transfer window for both Liverpool and Newcastle United.
We now know how it did all turn out in the end, by the time we got to 7pm on Monday 1 September 2025 when the window finally closed.
However, we could have seen a very different outcome this summer, when it comes to Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.
The situation all blew up in mid-July but clearly things had already been happening behind the scenes regarding Alexander Isak.
The Sweden international having told Newcastle United that he wanted to leave in this window and I think quite clearly, a player only does so when he already knows a specific club wants to sign him AND he wants to join them.
I think we can now also clearly see that Liverpool had been in contact with Newcastle United long before mid-July, informing NUFC of their intention to try and sign Isak ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Then in mid-July it all burst into public view.
Liverpool informed Newcastle United they were prepared to pay £120m+ for Alexander Isak, which United knocked back. Newcastle then made a bid totalling £69.5m for Hugo Ekitike, only for Liverpool to come in for the Eintracht Frankfurt striker and having chosen them, the scousers ended up very quickly agreeing a deal totalling £83m to sign the French forward and the deal was announced on 23 July 2025.
My mind was taken back to this when I read the article on The Mag this Monday morning, Hugo Ekitike telling French media why he chose Liverpool and not Newcastle United.
“Why Liverpool instead of Newcastle? It was my choice. It is what I wanted. Because I had a better feeling coming here [to Liverpool]. I knew it was the right time and the right place for me. I wanted to return to the top level and this time come back better equipped, more ready in every way. And I don’t think I made a mistake.”
Whilst nothing is changing my mind about the appalling conduct of Alexander Isak and Liverpool Football Club this summer. I am not seeing Hugo Ekitike having done anything wrong. He saw a a huge bid come in from Newcastle United and then an even bigger one from Liverpool, bigger transfer fee AND wages, choosing to join the reigning Premier League champions isn’t something that should shock anybody.
However, things could and should have turned out very differently in my opinion.
If the Newcastle United owners were determined to not be forced by Alexander Isak and Liverpool for a move to happen well below their much reported £150m valuation, then they had my full support.
However, Liverpool told them they were ready to pay £120m+ in mid-July (if not before), then six weeks later on deadline day, Liverpool paid £125m-£130m, not £150m.
You have to say, this was a shambles really from the Newcastle United owners.
Liverpool ended up with both Hugo Ekitike AND Alexander Isak, with Ekitike having a full pre-season and helping Liverpool to make a great start to the season, even though despite his very positive contribution (three PL goals and one assist in five games) they have still needed a lot of luck on top of that.
Yes, Liverpool have ended up with a bit of a shambles of their own with Isak, but the Hugo Ekitike signing has dug them out in the short-term, as well as what of course he now goes on to contribute.
The thing is, if the Newcastle United owners were never going to stick to a £150m valuation this summer, why on earth did they not get the £125m-£130m deal done with Liverpool back in mid-July, rather than doing exactly that on deadline day. Leaving Eddie Howe with a massive headache and a shambles to deal with that massively impacted the summer window and the start to the season.
What if no Liverpool bid for Hugo Ekitike?
If they were never going to stand firm on Alexander Isak and their valuation, the Newcastle United owners in mid-July should have had talks with Liverpool. Saying a deal needed to be done quickly, or not at all, if Liverpool wanted Isak.
That part of this Isak deal would include a gentleman’s agreement whereby Liverpool would step back from their interest in Hugo Ekitike, leaving Newcastle United a free run on him.
Eintracht Frankfurt had paid £15m to PSG for Hugo Ekitike in summer 2024 and after 15 Bundesliga goals in the 2024/25 season, fair to say that any transfer fee paid in summer 2025 was still mostly going to be about potential. Nobody was ever going to be paying anything like £70m+ purely based on what Hugo Ekitike had achieved on the pitch so far in his career. Indeed, things hadn’t really changed that much from when Eddie Howe and Newcastle United agreed a deal worth around £25m-£30m with Reims when a 20 year old Hugo Ekitike had just scored 10 goals in 15 Ligue 1 starts (and nine sub appearances) in the 2021/22 season. Only for Ekitike to choose PSG over Newcastle United.
If Liverpool had got into talks with Newcastle United in mid-July 2025 and a deal had been knocked together, then Hugo Ekitike would have signed for United and had a full pre-season with NUFC and he and his new teammates could and would have hit the ground running.
Eintracht Frankfurt were in dreamland when both Newcastle United and Liverpool were willing to pay £70m and £80m+ for a striker they had paid £15m for, only 12 months earlier.
No other clubs were willing to pay that kind of money this summer for the potential of Hugo Ekitike, If Liverpool had got Isak at that point in mid-July, Newcastle United would have had control of the Ekitike deal and no way that Eintracht Frankfurt wouldn’t have accepted around £70m, a £55m profit on the striker in a year.
Sky Sports in Germany said that Eintracht Frankfurt had turned down the initial Newcastle United offer of £69.5m, due to the payment terms offered by NUFC, not the actual amount of cash the offer was for. Armed with £130m or so from an Alexander Isak deal with Liverpool at that point, then for sure United could have satisfied Eintracht Frankfurt’s want/needs on payment terms for the Hugo Ekitike signing.
Newcastle United would have been at least doubling Ekitike’s Bundesliga wages (as opposed to tripling/quadrupling at Liverpool) and so all parties would have been happy with the deal. The striker getting his chance at a top trophy winning Premier League club that could offer Champions League football as well.
I am more than happy that Newcastle United eventually signed Nick Woltemade BUT if I could press a magic button and instead it was Hugo Ekitike signing for Newcastle in mid-July, rather than Woltemade at the end of August, then it would be the Ekitike deal for sure.
Not only that, but if the Isak to Liverpool and Ekitike to Newcastle moves had happened in mid-July, then I think as well that Eddie Howe could have quickly signed Yoane Wissa as well.
Armed with the cash banked for Alexander Isak and the massive extra PSR flex that sale gives, Newcastle could have surely gone to Brentford and swiftly satisfied their demands, giving them then plenty of time to spend that cash on a new striker to replace Wissa.
Yes, Newcastle United fans and Eddie Howe would still have been ‘disappointed’ with Isak and his determination to leave, if a sale had happened in mid-July, BUT if Hugo Ekitike AND probably Yoane Wissa as well had both been signed in July and had been ready to hit the new season running, we would all have been looking forward, not fretting about Isak. Plus of course, could Isak leaving in July have been anything like as bad as what it ended up for Newcastle United and their fans?
As I outline above, the Newcastle United owners presided over a shambolic summer and the fact there was no new Sporting Director or CEO in place, was a huge part of that shambles. A shambles that has massively impacted on Eddie Howe’s preparations for the new season and the early stages of it so far.
Hopefully lessons learnt and in the future, the Newcastle United owners will handle things far far better.
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