Team newspaper: The exchange with Slot convinced Ekitic that the players have been waiting for Liverpool to take action

July 21: Frankfurt striker Ekitic is about to join Liverpool with a transfer fee of more than 90 million euros. French media "Team News" published an article sorting out the transaction process.

No one expected that Ekitic, who was abandoned in Paris a year and a half ago, could spend such a high transfer fee, although surprised ordinary fans, it was actually based on a tracking observation of the player's sports performance in several seasons. The management of major European clubs has always been paying attention to Ekitic, a player who is 1.91 meters tall, skilled, capable of both ball control and breakthrough. His success in Frankfurt last season is not surprising. Liverpool senior executives had already included Ekitic's name in the report when they formulated their summer budget and transfer plans in the spring and were soon nominated as the No. 9 signing candidate.

Liverpool Sports Director Richard Hughes listed Ekitic as the second choice after Isaac, and the two transfers have been advancing in parallel. In March this year, Liverpool reconnected with Ekitic's representatives to understand the players' situation and evaluate the opponent's attitude towards the club. Over time, the plan to sign Isaac from Newcastle gradually became unrealistic, the plan to introduce Ekitic was accelerated, and exchanges between the parties became more and more frequent. Chelsea was once a strong bidding opponent, and they also made detailed plans for Ekitik, but this set of usual methods failed to achieve good results. As for Newcastle, they were very interested when Ekitic was still in Lance, but their plans failed to convince the players.

So what plan did Liverpool put forward for Ekitic? Slott put forward a set of ideas about the 4231 in a video conference with the players, elaborating on the evolution of the Reds' tactical system and stressing that in this case, they need a No. 9 player who is creative, flexible, able to cooperate, retrace and forward, which are not what Nunes is good at. Ekitic was very satisfied with the exchange. However, early in the transfer window, Liverpool made it clear that they must complete the transfer of Werz before formally pursuing Ekitic. During this period, Saudi team Caticia tried to attract Ekitic with sky-high quotations, and Newcastle also introduced a well-known middleman to promote the transaction, but none of them succeeded.

Ekitic and his team are not in a hurry. They have been waiting for Liverpool to operate. Although they have doubts about the slow progress of the process, Liverpool began the action 10 days ago after feeling the "threat" from Newcastle. When Newcastle made an offer to Frankfurt, Liverpool responded, and an agreement with the player was reached in less than 48 hours. Manchester United also tried to intervene, but it was too late and Ekitic had already made a decision. The players' team asked Frankfurt to only negotiate with Liverpool, and in less than a week, the two sides reached a comprehensive agreement.