{"id":288763,"date":"2025-07-24T20:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288763\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T20:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:13:13","slug":"pep-guardiola-has-already-admitted-the-alexander-isak-mistake-manchester-city-made-it-could-now-haunt-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288763\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola has already admitted the Alexander Isak mistake Manchester City made, it could now haunt him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A direct rival of Manchester City could be about to significantly strengthen themselves in Liverpool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manchester City fans are concerned<\/a> after hearing Liverpool could sign Alexander Isak \u2013 following a new development in which the Swede has asked to leave Newcastle this summer.<\/p>\n

The Reds have already made several key moves, spending \u00a3116m to sign Florian Wirtz \u2013 who Manchester City looked at<\/a> \u2013 and an initial \u00a369m on Hugo Ekitike.<\/p>\n

Milos Kerkez \u2013 another target for Manchester City<\/a> \u2013 also moved to Anfield in a \u00a340m deal, along with Jeremie Frimpong for \u00a330m.<\/p>\n

It means Liverpool could soon be able to boast a quite remarkable pairing of Mohamed Salah and Isak \u2013 but the Sweden international could have been partnering Erling Haaland, had Manchester City<\/a> been more decisive.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola revealed Alexander Isak was a \u201ctarget\u201d for Manchester City while still at Real Sociedad<\/p>\n

In January 2024, Pep Guardiola<\/a> revealed that Manchester City had a look at Isak<\/a> while he was playing for Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard told Manchester City\u2019s Matchday Live: \u201cThe impact that he has had since arriving has been really, really good. He has the conditions to be an incredible striker with his speed, his finishing. At Real Sociedad, we started to follow him, we were impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a target and a young player. With his skills, all the clubs around the world take a look so it\u2019s not a surprise and I think he adapted really, really well in the Premier League. I don\u2019t know him personally but I admire him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Liverpool are now showing Manchester City what they should have done<\/p>\n

Isak ultimately sealed a \u00a363m move to Newcastle in August 2022 \u2013 just a couple of months after Manchester City signed Haaland in a \u00a351m agreement with Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n

However, that is no excuse for Txiki Begiristain, who ought to have made a move anyway despite the Norway international arriving.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Liverpool just spent \u00a369m on a striker in Ekitike, but remain ready to swoop for Isak as well.<\/p>\n

It means Arne Slot could have both a proven Premier League striker in Isak, and also a younger talent in Ekitike who can adjust to English football at the same time.<\/p>\n

Manchester City could have had a similar dynamic if they signed the Swede as well as Haaland in 2022, but now find themselves in a position where the Norwegian is their only natural, reliable striker as rivals strengthen.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A direct rival of Manchester City could be about to significantly strengthen themselves in Liverpool. Manchester City fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[9261,748,393,4884,2465,1037,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-288763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-pep-guardiola","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114910042994651226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288763","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=288763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}