{"id":370759,"date":"2025-08-24T22:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370759\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T22:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:07:10","slug":"arne-slot-shows-sympathy-for-howe-but-isak-pursuit-is-strictly-business-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370759\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot shows sympathy for Howe but Isak pursuit is strictly business | Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot has said the sympathy he feels for Eddie Howe over the Alexander Isak affair<\/a> is limited by the fact the Liverpool transfer target is not the only talented forward available to the Newcastle manager. Slot revealed Howe is the one Premier League manager he has texted during his Liverpool reign and believes the 47-year-old will eventually coach England. Friendly overtures, however, may not be reciprocated when Liverpool visit St James\u2019 Park on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Isak will be conspicuous by his absence from Newcastle\u2019s first home game of the season, having in effect downed tools in an attempt to force a British record transfer to Liverpool<\/a>. The Premier League champions have contributed to a trying summer for Newcastle, turning Isak\u2019s head while also signing his potential replacement, Hugo Ekitik\u00e9. Their \u00a3110m offer for the Sweden international remains on Newcastle\u2019s table.<\/p>\n

Slot expects an \u201cintense\u201d night at St James\u2019 and, although Liverpool\u2019s pursuit of Isak is strictly business, he recognises the effect a player going on strike will have had on his opposite number. \u201cIn general I have sympathy for Eddie Howe<\/a> because he is a great human being,\u201d said the Dutchman. \u201cIt\u2019s maybe not a coincidence that I\u2019ve texted with him because I think he\u2019s a very nice, honest and polite colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the rest, I don\u2019t need to have sympathy for a manager that can still have the availability of Gordon, Murphy, Elanga, Barnes \u2026 You don\u2019t need to have sympathy for a manager who has so many good players in his squad. But, in general, I like him and I don\u2019t think it will be a surprise to anyone if eventually he is going to lead the national team of England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slot and Howe exchanged messages after the Carabao Cup final<\/a> in March, when Isak scored the decisive second goal to secure Newcastle\u2019s first domestic trophy for 70 years at Liverpool\u2019s expense. \u201cThe only [Premier League] manager I\u2019ve ever texted with was Eddie Howe,\u201d said Slot. \u201cIn Holland I texted with a few more. I don\u2019t think it is good for me to say what he texted me or what I texted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fully deserved to win the League Cup final. I didn\u2019t text him something different. If I see him [on Monday] I will be the same as I was last season and I expect nothing different from him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relations may have been strained between Howe and key figures at Anfield by the transfer saga. Richard Hughes, the Liverpool<\/a> sporting director who submitted the bid for Isak, has been close friends with Howe since they shared a flat during their playing days at Bournemouth. Howe has been friends with Michael Edwards, chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool\u2019s owner, since they played for Portsmouth in the early 2000s. Edwards worked for Portsmouth at the time as a Prozone analyst.<\/p>\n

Slot, returning to the theme of Howe\u2019s predicament, said: \u201cDo you feel sympathy? To a certain extent because I like him as a manager and as a person. It\u2019s not like we are friends and we are going to go on holiday together. You are asking me these questions because of Isak, of course. I added to that by saying we exchanged messages, the only manager I\u2019ve exchanged messages with in the Premier League until now. I do speak to other managers after games. Maybe there\u2019s a reason for that because my sports director has his number. Maybe he doesn\u2019t have all the numbers of all the other managers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eddie Howe will be without Liverpool transfer target Alexander Isak for Monday night\u2019s game against the Premier League champions. Photograph: John Walton\/PA<\/p>\n

What Slot does know is that when he looked at Liverpool\u2019s bench after Bournemouth made it 2-2 at Anfield in the Premier League\u2019s opening game<\/a>, his only striking options were Federico Chiesa and 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha. Chiesa delivered in the opening Premier League fixture with an 88th-minute winner, but purely in terms of numbers compared with last season Liverpool\u2019s need for another forward option is clear after the sales of Luis D\u00edaz and Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez, and the death of Diogo Jota.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends how you want to look at it,\u201d said Slot. \u201cIf you see Florian Wirtz as an attacking option as well, you can make it five [forwards available]. Yes we\u2019ve sold Darwin, we\u2019ve brought in Hugo, Luis is gone, but maybe you can see Florian as his replacement. Then you have Jeremie Frimpong who, when he is fit, is definitely an option to play as a winger as well. So then we end up at six. We have six players who can play in three positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would consider Florian in more games for that position. There were games last season \u2013 [Manchester] City away and Villa away \u2013 where we did play with an extra midfielder, I think Curtis Jones. It depends not only on being an extra midfielder, but also the tactics and how the opposition line up.\u201d And how the transfer saga of the summer pans out over the next few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has said the sympathy he feels for Eddie Howe over the Alexander Isak affair is limited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-370759","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\/115086022725635422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370759","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=370759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}