{"id":655133,"date":"2025-05-28T08:27:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=655133"},"modified":"2025-05-28T08:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:54:57","slug":"chelsea-liverpool-ekitike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/05\/28\/chelsea-liverpool-ekitike\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad News for Chelsea as Liverpool Enter the Race for ‘Monster’ Striker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea are set for a big summer once again with the Blues securing a place in the Champions League and having more money to play with in order to strengthen their squad. One area they’re looking to strengthen is the striker spot with links to Hugo Ekitike persevering. Despite that, they could be set to miss out on the “shot monster<\/a>” and “genuine goal threat” due to the presence of league winners Liverpool in the race for his signature.<\/p>\n

Liverpool Could Beat Chelsea to Hugo Ekitike Signing<\/h2>\n

Rivals in the Race<\/h3>\n

Sky Sports’ Bundesliga man Florian Plettenberg<\/a> has released an update on the saga surrounding the Eintracht Frankfurt striker. In it, he notes that Liverpool and key personnel like Arne Slot and Michael Edwards are interested in getting the attacker to Anfield. Their biggest rivals in that chase at the moment are Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Top 5 Chelsea Goalkeepers of All Time<\/a><\/p>\n

With a big fee likely to be demanded, it remains to be seen whether the Clearlake Capital-owned club can match the league winners. Between a more conservative wage structure and a recent trend of signing bargains, it wouldn’t be incredible to see Paul Winstaley and Laurence Stewart look elsewhere for a competitor\/replacement for Nicolas Jackson.<\/p>\n

Why is Ekitike in Demand<\/h3>\n

The tall youngster has garnered the eyes of top teams around Europe for his explosive breakout with Frankfurt this year. He accumulated 23 goal contributions in 33 Bundesliga appearances and is among the most well-rounded forwards in Europe statistically. Whether it’s dribbling, pressing, or goalscoring, he is one of the top percentile attackers across Europe’s top five leagues.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Opinion: Which Striker Should Chelsea Sign<\/a><\/p>\n

With his physical profile and statistical output, it comes as no surprise that the 22-year-old is being eyed up by major clubs, especially one like Chelsea who prefer a number nine who works hard to press, dribbles, and can get a shot away.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hugo
IMAGO \/ PA Images
Liverpool v Chelsea – Premier League – Anfield Liverpool manager Arne Slot left and Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture date: Sunday October 20, 2024. EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or live services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications. PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUKxIRL Copyright: xPeterxByrnex 77885833<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chelsea are set for a big summer once again with the Blues securing a place in the Champions League and having more money to play with in order to strengthen their squad. One area they’re looking to strengthen is the striker spot with links to Hugo Ekitike persevering. Despite that, they could be set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":655134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,16,30,7188],"tags":[8611,9158,7298],"class_list":["post-655133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-news","category-rumours","tag-chelsea-transfer-rumours","tag-hugo-ekitike","tag-liverpool-transfer-rumours"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655135,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655133\/revisions\/655135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}