{"id":359570,"date":"2025-08-20T13:58:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359570\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:58:13","slug":"alexander-isak-and-newcastle-approach-point-of-no-return-after-strikers-latest-outburst-newcastle-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359570\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Isak and Newcastle approach point of no return after striker\u2019s latest outburst | Newcastle United"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a general rule, it is almost always best to sleep on things before making important decisions or reacting to provocations. So why, at close to midnight on Tuesday, did Newcastle rush out a seemingly kneejerk response to Alexander Isak\u2019s incendiary Instagram post claiming that, amid broken promises, his relationship with the club was over<\/a>?<\/p>\n

In a statement reflecting an appreciably tougher tone than at any time during this summer saga, Newcastle insisted no promises had been broken and that their intention is to keep Isak. The message was that the Sweden striker\u2019s attempt to force a move to Liverpool<\/a> had failed and he would need to end his one-man strike before being welcomed back to first-team training. The only problem is that while you can lead a horse to water it sometimes really is impossible to make them drink.<\/p>\n

Even if \u2013 and right now it looks a pretty big if \u2013 Isak stops training alone and agrees to rejoin Newcastle\u2019s first-team fold, how can Eddie Howe ever trust him again? Howe\u2019s high-intensity, hard-pressing approach is extremely demanding and, if Isak is anything less than fully engaged, he will prove detrimental to the team. Yes, Isak is supremely gifted, but the standard in the Premier League and Champions League is so high even he is not capable of drifting through games and scoring goals out of nothing.<\/p>\n

Howe has already acknowledged that Isak\u2019s behaviour in skipping Newcastle\u2019s pre-season tour of south-east Asia disrupted dressing room morale. Does he really want a player, however talented, polluting behind-the-scenes atmosphere with his grievances? Given Newcastle fans have taken to chanting about \u201cone greedy bastard\u201d, maintaining his personal security in the face of intense supporter anger may not be exactly straightforward, either.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Isak knows that with every poor performance the price tag around his neck will drop. Given that Liverpool have shown no indication of pursuing alternative strikers, they could end up playing a slightly longer game and waiting until Newcastle are desperate to offload their No 14 in January. In reality it will be a major surprise if this saga endures that long. Indeed a careful reading of Newcastle\u2019s statement conveys a hint that maybe it is part of a haggling manoeuvre as the club\u2019s Saudi Arabian owners aim to extract the maximum possible price from their Anfield counterparts. As the former Newcastle and Liverpool manager Rafael Ben\u00edtez used to say: \u201cAll football is a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been clear that the conditions for a sale this summer have not transpired,\u201d read Newcastle\u2019s statement on Tuesday night. \u201cWe do not foresee these conditions being met\u201d. The conditions in question refer to the need for Newcastle to sign two strikers to not merely replace Isak but also Callum Wilson, who is now at West Ham. There is a theory that Isak\u2019s withering social media-outburst reflected his frustration at the club\u2019s unwillingness to pay Brentford\u2019s \u00a350m-\u00a360m asking fee for Yoane Wissa to fill at least one of those slots. In an uncanny parallel, Wissa has also absented himself from first-team involvement<\/a> at his club as he attempts to seal a longed-for move to St James\u2019 Park.<\/p>\n

Yoane Wissa is trying to engineer a move to St James\u2019 Park from Brentford. Photograph: Dave Shopland\/AP<\/p>\n

The ostensibly weird thing about the proposed Wissa deal is that the Saudis want \u00a3150m for Isak but have offered Brentford less than a third of that, bidding \u00a335m for the DR Congo forward. Statistics can be deceptive but in this case they seem pretty compelling. Last season Wissa scored 19 goals in 35 Premier League appearances. Significantly, none were penalties. Isak, meanwhile, scored 23 times in 34 league appearances for a much stronger side. Four of his goals were also penalties.<\/p>\n

There is a reasonable case for claiming that Isak\u2019s all-round game is superior to Wissa\u2019s, but Brentford-watchers demur, making the point that Wissa is also a pretty useful attacking threat from wide on the left. The big difference is that Wissa is three years older than Isak. Perhaps more importantly, while three years remain on Isak\u2019s contract with Newcastle, there is only one year left on Wissa\u2019s with Brentford.<\/p>\n

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If Newcastle lifted their offer for Wissa slightly past \u00a340m, Brentford would surely do a deal. Their Saudi owners also know that keeping Isak for another year could prove rather pointless given that he is clearly not committed to Howe\u2019s cause and next summer\u2019s price for a then 26-year-old with two years left on his contract is going to be nowhere near \u00a3150m.<\/p>\n

Despite appearances to the contrary, the prospect of such a dwindling profit margin means it is still eminently possible to envisage Isak waking up as a Liverpool player on 2 September. Similarly, J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen or Gon\u00e7alo Ramos could join Wissa on Tyneside by the time the transfer window has shut. And should that all transpire, what\u2019s for sure is that Newcastle\u2019s dressing room would be an infinitely healthier, happier place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a general rule, it is almost always best to sleep on things before making important decisions or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115061450738501127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359570","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=359570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}