"Understand that..": Journo drops big Newcastle update that'll leave supporters gutted - opinion

A big update has emerged regarding Newcastle United‘s pursuit of Hugo Ekitike in the summer transfer window… 

90min reporter Graeme Bailey has revealed that the Magpies have ended their interest in the Reims centre-forward.

The journalist has claimed that the move had been agreed with both club and player, but the striker’s representatives have caused the transfer to collapse.

Bailey tweeted: “Understand that Newcastle United have pulled out of Hugo Ekitike deal. Everything was agreed with Reims and the player’s personal terms – but the agent was demanded extra payments amongst a number of things, and the deal is now off.”

This update will surely leave Newcastle supporters feeling gutted for multiple reasons.

Firstly, the deal being scuppered by his agents demanding more money will be particularly frustrating, as the player and Reims had already agreed to the move.

Ekitike agreeing to the transfer suggests that he is keen to join Eddie Howe’s squad and fans will be fuming that, according to this report, the only reason that it is not going ahead is because of money.

As a result, supporters must be gutted that they will not be able to watch the Frenchman in action for the Magpies next season.

Ekitike has previously been likened to Kylian Mbappe for the manner in which he burst onto the scene in France, and that illustrates the immense potential that he is perceived to have.

With this comparison in mind, Statman Dave provided an interesting statistic as he tweeted: “Only Kylian Mbappe [1.25] registered more non-penalty direct goal involvements than Hugo Ekitike [0.85] in the 21/22 Ligue 1 season.”

This shows that the 20-year-old was second only to the Paris Saint-Germain superstar in the final third in the French top