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Hugo Ekitike has made a splash in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool FC, Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

It wouldn't have taken long for it to have dawned on Hugo Ekitike the size of the club he has joined in Liverpool.

The £79m signing from Eintracht Frankfurt was barely 12 hours removed from being confirmed as a Reds player when he was paraded in front of 25,000 supporters last month.

The fact that such a turn-out, for an open training session, came in Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium, some 6,000 miles away from his new home on Merseyside, will have been quite the eye-opener for the France Under-21 international.

Ekitike flew into Hong Kong fresh from completing his medical for Liverpool in late July and was introduced to his new team-mates on the pitch of the Kai Tak after they had finished their session in front of supporters on the eve of their pre-season friendly with AC Milan.

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Rather than be inhibited by the size and scale of his new employers, however, Ekitike has so far taken it all in his stride, with two expertly taken goals against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield last week and Bournemouth in the Premier League on Friday night.

It's understood the Reds initially made advances over Ekitike in January as Arne Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes began to gently plan how their forward line might look for the campaign ahead.

The Reds head coach spoke to the Frenchman at the end of last season and sold him the vision for how he would fit in when leading the Liverpool line.

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There was a belief that Newcastle United's interest in Ekitike, which emerged at the beginning of the summer months, would embolden Frankfurt into something resembling an auction.

The German side have offloaded the likes off Nikola Jovic (£52m, Real Madrid), Randal Kolo Muani (£74m, Paris Saint-Germain) and Omar Marmoush (£59m, Manchester City) for big fees in recent years and saw the situation around Ekitike as being no different.

The Magpies saw an opening bid of £70m rejected before Liverpool swooped quickly last month, having already been armed with all the data, scouting reports and character references needed to pursue the deal.

The Reds' willingness to be proactive earlier in the calendar year allowed them to gain the necessary information to proceed when it was agreed that Ekitike was the right player for the next stage of their evolution up front.

When Marmoush left, Ekitike struggled a bit, but then he went back to scoring goals.

"I’m not surprised to see what he has done and I’m very happy for him to be back on track, because it's not always easy to get back up when you receive that first slap.

Now he’s playing for Liverpool, he has already scored, and what's good with him is that he has both - he's a very good finisher in the box and can also play on the counter because he’s fast.

He’s a 9.

"Can he play on the left or right?

But this is what I’m saying, you were never going to ask Alan Shearer to play on the left or right, right?
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