Everton agree £34m+ deal to sign PSG forward Hugo Ekitike

Everton have agreed a big-money deal with PSG to sign forward Hugo Ekitike, according to Sports Zone.

The French news outlet tweeted on 9 August that the Toffees will pay £34.5million to sign the 21-year-old as they look to bolster their attacking options after PSG accepted a bid from Merseyside.

But it said Frankfurt, West Ham and RC Lens are also interested in signing the Frenchman, who won the Ligue 1 title with The Parisians last season.

This looks like promising news for Everton fans if they have, in fact, agreed a deal with PSG to sign Ekitike this summer.

It does seem a little hard to believe the Toffees have agreed to pay that much money for him, though, due to the widely reported financial constraints surrounding the club at the moment.

After spending last season on loan at PSG from Reims, his deal only become permanent in June due to an obligation to buy clause in his contract, with the Ligue 1 club paying a reported £30.2million.

The report suggests that the forward must now decide if he wants to make the move to Goodison Park as other clubs – all of which have European football to offer – are interested in signing him.

It seems as though there could be a few potential twists in this one before Ekitike becomes a Blues player, but it looks like they’re in with a shout of landing him.

In other Everton news, one player has suffered a fresh injury setback ahead of the game against Fulham.

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Everton open talks over £30m loan-to-buy deal for Paris Saint-Germain striker Hugo Ekitike

Everton have opened talks with Paris Saint-Germain over a loan deal with Hugo Ekitike with an option to buy for £30m, says Ignazio Genuardi.

Writing on his personal Twitter account (9 August), the former editor of F365 France wrote that talks are ongoing between the two clubs as the Toffees look to bolster their forward line.

Reports of a bid worth £34.6m emerged on Wednesday, however Genuardi reports that Everton want a loan deal with an option to buy while PSG want it to be an obligation and talks are continuing over that aspect of the transfer.

“Yes, Everton is interested in the Parisian Ekitike, but the talks are about a loan and not a transfer,” he wrote.

“After having seriously thought about M. Dembélé, Iheanacho or even Gyökeres, the Toffees are working in particular on the former Rémois.

“Two other targets are on the Championship side with Daka from Leicester and Adams from Southampton.

The negotiations start on the basis of a loan with OA [option to buy] of 35M€ (£30m). To see if the operation is accompanied by a mandatory option and under what conditions in this specific case.”

Makes sense

Everton need to strengthen but spending such big money on a striker who hasn’t exactly set the world alight so far in his young career looked like a big gamble.

The club have already sorted a deal for Youssef Chermiti who falls into the same category, so doing it again for Ekitike would have been odd when we need goals now.

A loan deal with an option to buy makes much more sense as it gives us the chance to bring him in and see how he adapts to Sean Dyche’s system and the Premier League before being forced to splash a big sum of money on him.

Our financial situation is not the best and we can’t afford to get big deals wrong, so a loan makes far more sense for us although it’s understandable why PSG would rather get the money signed off now.

There are a few weeks to go in the window so there is plenty of time to negotiate and find a deal that suits everyone, so this is certainly one to keep an eye on.

In other Everton news, blockbuster offer tabled as Dyche looks for another striker.