PSG coach Christophe Galtier has explained why new signing Hugo Ekitike has hardly played this season after the French champions beat Newcastle United to the youngster’s signature.
Speaking to L’Equipe, the Ligue 1 manager explained that Ekitike is still learning the ropes of playing for a top club, with the attacker so far playing just 67 minutes for PSG since signing from Reims on loan with a reported £30m obligation to buy next summer, snubbing Newcastle in the process.
The Magpies were heavily linked with Ekitike for the majority of the year, with Newcastle coming close to signing the striker in the January window before the 20-year-old reportedly rejected the move to the Premier League in order to focus on his own development with Reims, a decision that proved quite the correct one.
With Ekitike snubbing Newcastle for PSG, Eddie Howe turned his sights to Alexander Isak instead, where the club-record signing has been a revelation in the northeast, whilst his French counterpart continues to struggle to break into arguably the best front-three currently playing together in Europe.
Indeed, Ekitike will no doubt find his feet at PSG given the ages of both Neymar and Lionel Messi, and according to Galtier himself, the striker has the potential to star for his side in the future if he is willing to wait it out and to develop his game on the training pitch.
Galtier said: “Hugo is a player with incredible potential. He is discovering the highest level. He needs some sessions to find the right level and to create a connection with the attacking unit. He is progressing enormously and is very good in training. He is dying to get going. The good times will come very quickly, and he will have lots more game time very soon.”
Ekitike could already be regretting snubbing Newcastle to sign for PSG
Ekitike’s time at PSG could well come in the next few months, but with the striker barely having a sniff of regular football at PSG, the youngster could already be thinking that he made a mistake not signing for Newcastle over the Ligue 1 champions given his lack of playing time.
After all, playing regular football at this stage of your career is vital to any player’s development, and for Ekitike, he could lose some serious ground if he continues to sit on the bench at PSG whilst other players in his age group continue to progress and pull away from the French wonderkid.
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