the Lassana Diarra case<\/a>, which could yet blow up the global transfer market. The Isak saga may not necessarily help that along, though.<\/p>\nA consensus has grown that the striker might have gone too far.<\/p>\n
![\"Alexander](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/30d39c56c185757800b9e0043364c0f3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzU1NzIyNDY4-2.81163991.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Alexander Isak has accused Newcastle of breaking promises (PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Players themselves \u2013 including some of Isak\u2019s Newcastle teammates \u2013 generally empathise with such situations, since it\u2019s a short career and they feel you have to maximise your own opportunities. Most wouldn\u2019t have gone about it like this. Dressing-room insiders, meanwhile, say that Isak\u2019s current teammates feel \u201clet down\u201d, amid split opinions.<\/p>\n
While the PFA obviously isn\u2019t going to speak publicly on a player going on strike, the prevailing view is that the union doesn\u2019t like it, because it is not a position that engenders sympathy. Isak has instead managed to create some sympathy for what is essentially a sportswashing project.<\/p>\n
It is not the only irony of this situation.<\/p>\n
One of many reasons that Isak wants to leave is because he is going to be 26 in September and doesn\u2019t feel Newcastle have the capabilities to compete for the major trophies.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons for that, too, but one is dysfunction within the club this summer. And yet it is that very dysfunction that may end up meaning Isak has to stay.<\/p>\n
For all the words and circuitous arguments expended on this saga over the past few months, the entire story really comes down to two truths.<\/p>\n
The most relevant is that Newcastle weren\u2019t going to sanction a sale without an adequate replacement. They have so far failed to do that, having seen at least four primary targets turn them down.<\/p>\n
As the end of the window gets closer, and the quality of viable alternatives decreases, Isak has clearly started to agitate. Hence the silence being broken on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
And yet it was through those very words that Isak may have brought all this down to the other crucial truth in any such saga.<\/p>\n
There is a delicate balance of power to such situations. While the window is open, the player has most of the leverage, especially since clubs generally don\u2019t want to keep someone who isn\u2019t fully committed. It becomes a corrosive problem \u2013 \u201cstink the place out\u201d, in the sport\u2019s language \u2013 and you can just go about other business.<\/p>\n
Once the window closes, however, the club has that leverage. The player has nowhere to go and obviously won\u2019t want to sit on the bench, especially in a World Cup year.<\/p>\n
![\"Isak](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Newcastle-United-v-Wolverhampton-Wanderers-Premier-League-St--James-Park-pfhx5ltn.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Isak has been ruthless for Newcastle (PA)<\/p>\n
Isak may have actually accelerated this process, and closed his own window.<\/p>\n
As one industry figure with knowledge of the situation says, \u201conce players start putting out statements, that\u2019s when it gets messy\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all the more complicated due to the higher-level dimension of this story.<\/p>\n
Newcastle were initially going to be realistic and pragmatic about this. Now, Isak has played on emotions, and they are the emotions of one of the most powerful entities on earth.<\/p>\n
The Public Investment Fund is the sovereign wealth fund of an autocracy, Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, if Newcastle were purchased to be a vehicle for political projection, they are now going to project strength.<\/p>\n
Through that, there are echoes of arguably the only modern saga to go to worse levels than this. In 2011, Carlos Tevez decamped to Argentina, while complaining that Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had treated him \u201clike a dog\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since City\u2019s ownership was a senior royal, however, they didn\u2019t have to think like a normal club. Chair Khaldoon al Mubarak, one of the most powerful figures in the UAE, just insisted he wasn\u2019t going. That wasn\u2019t going to get done to City.<\/p>\n
Newcastle\u2019s stance is now the same. Isak isn\u2019t going.<\/p>\n
The saga has led to a lot of other discussions, like whether the player has been badly advised, or even whether clubs like Liverpool should want a player who has agitated like the Swede.<\/p>\n
The latter point is absurd. Isak is very good at scoring goals. When he\u2019s switched on, he improves your team. It\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n
![\"Isak](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/01K33ZFYCXNEJ6TH4YM9WWH3JS.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Isak at the club\u2019s training centre (Owen Humphreys\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
The question about his advice is more complicated. If Isak ultimately gets his move, no matter how it comes about, it will all have paid off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just hard to see how that might happen right now.<\/p>\n
Back at the PFA awards on Tuesday night, industry figures were talking about whether Newcastle could be threatened with the Diarra judgment, or whether Fifa circular number 1917 could even come into play, where an International Transfer Certificate is requested for Isak and he temporarily goes abroad.<\/p>\n
That could involve going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however, and maybe eventually a civil court.<\/p>\n
A messy story would get even worse.<\/p>\n
Except, now, Newcastle are insistent it\u2019s much simpler. This isn\u2019t going anywhere, because Isak isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
That might yet be the final say for this window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115062316244316337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359985","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=359985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}