Should the Reds be scared of the ‘Frankfurt curse’?

Premier League champions surprised everybody last season not only by winning the title, but by doing so without buying any new players. But this year its going to be different, very different. Liverpool has already surpassed Chelsea (for now) with the aggressiveness and spending power and spent over 300 million euros. The transfer window will last for another two months, but the Reds already got much stronger, with additions of Florian Wirtz, Miloš Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giorgi Mamardashvili while Hugo Ekitike is the last in line.

Spend lavishly, and then spend some more: Liverpool snatch Ekitike!

The French striker is yet to arrive for his medical, but the fee with Frankfurt is agreed, since their unsettling of Alexander Isak from Newcastle didn’t work out. The German club pulled of another fantastic piece of business and established themselves as on the of the top players in Europe. Apart from other positions, Eintracht have developed a reputation for being one of Europe’s top clubs for gifted attackers. Almost on a regular bases (every two seasons), they managed to sell a player for a much biggest sum they paid for him, and Ekitike is the last in line. But it is also interesting to know that there is some sort of ‘curse’ in Frankfurt, as so far, no striker who went from the club surpassed the success he had in Germany. Should Liverpool fans be worried?

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Since 2019, Frankurt sold: Luka Jovic to Real Madrid for 52.4 million pounds, Sebastien Haller to West Ham for 45m, Ante Rebic to AC Milan for 21.7, Andre Silva to RB Leipzig for 19.9 million, Randal Kolo Muani to Paris Saint-Germain for 76.4, Omar Marmoush to Manchester City for 59 and Hugo Ekitike will end up in Liverpool for 79 million pounds. But what those clubs got in return when they spent so much money on Frankfurt’s attackers? Jovic, Haller, Andre Silva and Kolo Randal Muani cost more than 190 million combined but delivered just 55 goals between them in 269 games at their next clubs, before moving elsewhere, permanently or on loan. To be fair, different reasons were in place for some of them. Moving from Frankfurt to a club like Real Madrid is not for everyone, especially Luka Jović, who has struggled since. Haller went to a club who has a history of buying wrong strikers and also played a different tactics, so the Ivorian didn’t have a chance to succeed in West Ham. Kolo Muani ended up at a club where he wasn’t the focal point and then came Luis Enrique who didn’t fancy him from the start. But, his loan in Juventus was also not a great one. The jury is still out there for Omar Marmoush, who arrived in City in January, and Ekitike will also have some introductory time when he arrive in Enfield, but that won’t last forever.