{"id":571069,"date":"2025-11-15T02:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571069\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T02:00:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:00:27","slug":"i-understand-alexander-isak-leaving-newcastle-but-he-needs-to-get-his-head-down-at-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/571069\/","title":{"rendered":"I understand Alexander Isak leaving Newcastle but he needs to get his head down at Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Newcastle United striker Andy Cole gives his take on Alexander Isak’s decision to join Liverpool in the summer\"AlexanderAlexander Isak has had a slow start to life at Liverpool(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Former Newcastle United striker Andy Cole says he understood Alexander Isak’s decision to leave for Liverpool for a British record \u00a3125m on transfer deadline day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the former Magpies forward has urged Isak to ignore the debate<\/a> around the circumstances of his acrimonious exit to Anfield<\/a> as he bids to now make the grade with the Premier League<\/a> champions.<\/p>\n

Liverpool were rebuffed by Newcastle at the start of August after Sweden international Isak had made it known privately he wanted to leave St James’ Park.<\/p>\n

After being left off the club’s pre-season tour of the Far East with a minor injury cited in July, Isak returned to action using the facilities of former club Real Sociedad without Newcastle’s permission.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Liverpool should have signed Marc Guehi before Alexander Isak – there are no guarantees now’<\/a>READ MORE: Liverpool star Hugo Ekitike achieves ‘childhood dream’ as France’s ‘perfect substitute’<\/a><\/p>\n

In mid-August, just minutes after being included in the PFA Team of the Season for the previous campaign, Isak took to social media to bemoan broken promises at Newcastle and he was eventually sold for a \u00a3125m fee<\/a> on September 1 having not had a pre-season schedule due to his expulsion by boss Eddie Howe.<\/p>\n

Cole moved from Newcastle to join Manchester United in a shock \u00a37m deal back in 1995 and he admitted he could see why Isak was determined to test himself at a club chasing major honours like the Premier League and Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Yeah it’s always challenging [making that step up],” Cole told Sky Sports News. “That is why, as players, you always want to make those decisions.<\/p>\n

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“When you believe that you are moving to a club that can win the Premier League, compete for the Champions League, or major honours, you’ve got to understand he’s possibly going to go there.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to take a bit of time but you will understand why you went there in the end. So in Isak’s case, it’s been a tough start for him. And the way the deal has come about as well, people can look at it and say: ‘Well he should have done this, he should have done that.’<\/p>\n

“But what has happened has happened, so all he has got to do now is get his head down and keep working and fingers crossed it works out for him.”<\/p>\n

On the Premier League title race as a whole, Cole added: “I think it is going to be another tight one. I know Arsenal at the moment are absolutely flying but as we know in football, every team goes through a blip.<\/p>\n

“We know Arsenal’s blip is coming, Manchester City’s blip is going to come, I don’t know if Liverpool have already gone through theirs.<\/p>\n

“So there is so far to go. The manager (Alex Ferguson) always used to say to us: ‘The season doesn’t get going until Easter.’ And we’re sitting there thinking the season is nearly finished.<\/p>\n

“But, you know, mentally, the games come thick and fast, points are dropped, points are picked up, you just don’t know what can happen at that time of the season.”<\/p>\n

Isak, who has been sidelined with a groin injury since Liverpool beat Eintracht Frankfurt on October 22, is expected to return when Sweden meet Switzerland in Geneva on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Newcastle United striker Andy Cole gives his take on Alexander Isak’s decision to join Liverpool in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[9261,748,393,4884,179,763,1596,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-571069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-liverpool-fc","14":"tag-liverpool-fc-transfer-news","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115551250703073382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571069","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=571069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}