{"id":277161,"date":"2025-07-20T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T10:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277161\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T10:54:10","slug":"alexander-isak-missed-newcastle-friendly-due-to-transfer-speculation-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277161\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Isak missed Newcastle friendly due to transfer speculation – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle<\/a> manager Eddie Howe has admitted it was his decision not to use Alexander Isak in a pre-season friendly, amid continued links to Liverpool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Swede is the dream target for Liverpool this summer.<\/p>\n

Isak wasn\u2019t involved at all in Newcastle<\/a>\u2018s 4-0 friendly defeat to Celtic on Saturday, with Howe explaining that he chose not to play amid \u201cnoise\u201d around his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my decision,\u201d Howe said. \u201cHe travelled back to Glasgow with us but I decided to send him home due to the speculation around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing he wanted is to be sat in the stand watching, that wasn\u2019t fair to him. But I\u2019m confident he will be a Newcastle<\/a> player come the end of the window.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cYes I\u2019ve had discussions with him, but that\u2019s not abnormal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect a player\u2019s career and how short it is. Alex has been really good, he\u2019s trained really well and I realise there\u2019ll be noise around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howe also added that there is a \u201cstrong\u201d<\/a> level of desire at Newcastle<\/a> to keep Isak, \u201cfrom board to staff to players,\u201d rather than bow down to Liverpool and sell them their best player.<\/p>\n

But he did admit that \u201cfinances play a big part\u201d and that \u201canyone who doesn\u2019t say that is deluded,\u201d suggesting that an Isak exit is not impossible.<\/p>\n

Liverpool made an approach to Newcastle<\/a> last week, with the champions reportedly willing to pay \u00a3120 million for the 25-year-old. <\/p>\n

\"NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE,<\/p>\n

While Eintracht Frankfurt\u2019s Hugo Ekitike looks highly likely to join Liverpool after reaching an agreement<\/a>, BBC Sport reporter Sami Mokbel has stressed that Isak could also still come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if their decision to focus on Ekitike comes to fruition, you can expect Liverpool\u2019s interest in Isak to remain,\u201d Mokbel said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Isak\u2019s absence on Saturday is only likely to fuel speculation about Liverpool signing him ahead of the new Premier League<\/a> season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The fact that the Reds haven\u2019t given up on him, seemingly being willing to sign both him and Ekitike, is further proof of their bullish transfer approach this summer.<\/p>\n

Newcastle<\/a> are making it clear that they won\u2019t be bullied into selling, but these updates suggest there is still life in the story.<\/p>\n

If Liverpool managed to sign both Isak and Ekitike, paving the way for Darwin Nunez<\/a> to leave, it would be significant attacking business.<\/p>\n

With Florian Wirtz<\/a> already brought in for a British transfer record fee, and Jeremie Frimpong<\/a> and Milos Kerkez<\/a> also arriving, there is huge reason for optimism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has admitted it was his decision not to use Alexander Isak in a pre-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,763,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-277161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-liverpool-fc","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114885195557227676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}