Latest: Fabrizio Romano update on Chelsea’s bid for “€100m” striker | OneFootball

Chelsea may have completed a deal to sign Liam Delap, but that hasn’t slowed them down in looking to sign another striker to reinforce their front line.

One of the names being mentioned most often was that of Hugo Ekitike of Eintracht Frankfurt, and today we’ve got an update from Fabrizio Romano on our nascent attempts to sign him.

Frankfurt sporting director stands firm with demands for mega money

A montage of Enzo Maresca and Hugo Ekitike. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Markus Krösche, the Frankfurt sporting director who has done such an exceptional job of signing players like Ekitike and selling players like Omar Marmoush for huge money, was quoted today talking about the bids for his latest starlet:

“If the price isn’t right, then he will stay with us”, Krösche told told paper Wiesbadener Kurier.

Romano quoted this, then made it clear that no bid had yet come in from Chelsea:

“Chelsea never sent any bid; only asked for deal conditions two weeks ago and Eintracht wanted €100m,” the top Italian transfer insider said.

Chelsea don’t feel like contenders for Ekitike after latest red line

This one sounds dead in the water at this stage. Frankfurt would likely accept less than €100m, but not much less. It would still be impossible for Chelsea to pay the sort of money they’re looking for, especially now they’ve got Delap signed up and can relax a little.

As recently as a week ago, Florian Plettenberg was saying we were looking to “finalise” a deal for the Ekitike. That looks very premature now. We suspect we will see France youth star stick around in the Bundesliga for at least another year now, considering Frankfurt’s strong bargaining position.

Still, you can never rule anything out, and there’s a lot of summer left to get through…