With Manchester City seemingly pursuing Erling Haaland these days, it appears their desire to get Tottenham’s Harry Kane has dwindled, or the Norwegian is simply an alternative.
Regardless, the England international is enjoying a good spell under Antonio Conte at Spurs this season, finally finding his old form after a slow start to the campaign.
This, combined with the possibility of more improvement at Tottenham under the Italian going forward, could convince the 28-year-old to stay for longer and not pursue trophies elsewhere.
In turn, Kane remaining as the main striker at the north London club would mean a backup, preferably younger, to come in and learn from the Englishman, which is where Hugo Ekitike could come in.
The young Reims forward was the subject of interest and bids from Newcastle during the January transfer window, but he decided to turn down that opportunity to finish the season with the Ligue 1 side, where he feels comfortable for the time being.
He’s scored 10 goals in 23 appearances for Reims this season to date, as well as picking up four assists, but there is a sense that if the right offer arrives this summer, he could leave.
Whether that would take €40m again remains to be seen, but Calciomercato.it in Italy believe it will be less than that, with a figure of €20m quoted.
This comes as AS Roma have turned their attention to the player, since they will need a backup for Tammy Abraham going forward.
The website describe the player as ‘already strong and potentially very strong’, and proof of this comes from the likes of Barcelona, Tottenham and Atlético Madrid taking notice, and ‘having begun to appear around Reims to build negotiations and ignite what will become a great European derby for Ekitike’.
They then add ‘the feeling is that the player would choose an experience outside of France if he had the opportunity’, and his ‘price is around €20m’.
That seems low, if not very low, to us considering how much Newcastle had to bid in January to get Reims to accept, so we’ll believe that bit when we see it.
As for Tottenham being interested? It does make some sense if Kane were to stay, but as a direct replacement for the England international? It might be a bit too early for that.
