Since media outlets reported in late July of Alexander Isak’s desire to ‘explore a move away’ from Newcastle United, who at the same time left him out of a pre-season tour of Asia citing a minor thigh injury which has now cleared up, the player and club have been locked in an increasingly public standoff. While the player through a fog of silence and client journalism has appeared to double down on his desire to leave, the club have yet to authorise a sale especially since they have struggled to procure a replacement striker while the only bid for Isak – a derisory Ā£110 million offer from Liverpool made at the start of August – was curtly dismissed.
Almost a month into this saga, last night Isak finally released a statement apparently prompted by his decision to stay home from the annual PFA awards ceremony, where he missed out to Mo Salah having been nominated for best player but was named as part of the Premier League team of the year. His absence from the ceremony was perhaps a personal embarrassment and furthered the current perception of him as some kind of shut-in or recluse, a singular and solitary figure at the best of times who now stands sullenly apart from his fellow man with his attempts to force a move having hitherto blown up.
Yet the timing is also advantageous in so far as it reiterates his standing as one of the game’s leading strikers. In his statement, which was published on Instagram Stories and therefore will expire after the usual twenty-four hours, Isak spoke of his gratitude for being included at the PFA awards and thanked his teammates as well as ‘everyone at Newcastle United who has supported me along the way’. But with evident chagrin he also spoke of broken promises, pointing to agreements made ‘behind closed doors’ and suggesting that the club had known for some time about his position with regard to a transfer, concluding with an air of pleading finality that ‘When promises are broken and trust is lost, the relationship can’t continue’.
Later still into an already late evening, in fact just before midnight, Newcastle issued their response. In three parts the statement got to the crux of the matter: the club does not believe that they have broken any promises with regard to a transfer, they do not foresee the conditions for a transfer being met in what remains of the summer and they therefore expect Isak to rejoin his teammates, presumably playing a major part for Newcastle over the season to come.
We are clear in response that Alex remains under contract and that no commitment has ever been made by a club official that Alex can leave Newcastle United this summer.
We want to keep our best players, but we also understand players have their own wishes and we listen to their views. As explained to Alex and his representatives, we must always take into consideration the best interests of Newcastle United, the team and our supporters in all decisions and we have been clear that the conditions of a sale this summer have not transpired.
We do not foresee those conditions being met.
This is a proud football club with proud traditions and we strive to retain our family feel. Alex remains part of our family and will be welcomed back when he is ready to rejoin his teammates.
The statements put out by Isak and the club are at odds. We know that Isak ended last season as a Newcastle United player and took to Instagram to celebrate the club securing Champions League football for 2025-26. In the middle of July he commented on Newcastle’s first signing of the summer in the form of his Swedish compatriot Anthony Elanga, leaving four heart-eyed emojis on one of his Instagram posts as the former Nottingham Forest winger completed a Ā£55 million move. Elanga who caught Newcastle’s eye last summer has indicated that he and Isak discussed the transfer, which rounded out the club’s attack seemingly leaving them short of only a backup striker. But then Isak announced his intention to ‘explore a move’ coincidentally just as Liverpool were completing the transfer of Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt, a similar forward with a gangly frame, quick feet and a striker’s instincts for whom Newcastle had previously made an unsuccessful bid.
Two contrasting set of circumstances seem to present themselves. Having received no special assurances according to the club’s account of the matter, Isak’s obstinacy has presumably come as a surprise to Newcastle who expected to be able to rely on their star striker short of a major bid, speculated to be in the region of Ā£150 million which would be an English transfer record. Unless they are to receive such a fee and in the meantime manage to secure a couple of replacements – enough to cover Isak’s goals and fill out the squad following the departure earlier in the summer of backup striker Callum Wilson, whose contract had expired with the player opting to leave on a free – Newcastle feel that they are within their rights to hold on to Isak and expect him to reintegrate with the team.
The broken promises to which Isak is referring may at least partly involve the club’s failure to sign him up to a new-and-improved contract, even though he still has three years left on his current deal. There are suggestions that Amanda Staveley – the face of the consortium which bought Newcastle in 2021, and who effectively ran the club as one of its minority owners alongside her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi – had promised Isak an improved salary before she and Ghodoussi sold their 10% stake and left the club in the summer of 2024.
That summer Newcastle were stymied by the Premier League’s increasingly contentious Profit and Sustainability Rules, which require clubs to lose no more than Ā£105 million over a three-year period. As they were perilously close to exceeding that threshold and faced the prospect of a points deduction, Newcastle were compelled to sell two promising young players before the accounting deadline in Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, who left for more than Ā£60 million with the reserve goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos arriving as a costly makeweight.
Determined not to make the same mistake again, when Newcastle’s chief executive Darren Eales appointed Paul Mitchell as the club’s new sporting director the club seemed set for a change of direction. Mitchell called the club’s previous transfer strategy ‘not fit for purpose’ and reportedly decided to put the old kibosh on any prospect of a new deal for Isak. While his remarks hardly endeared him to the club’s fans and purportedly irked the manager Eddie Howe, the idea at least was to conserve resources and build a long-term strategy which through good scouting and smart player trading would render PSR concerns a thing of the past.
If Isak feels that the club reneged on a promised salary increase, those lost earnings could be made up by virtue of a one-time payment were he and the club to earnestly pursue a new contract. Yet whether his upset and his sense of broken promises stems from failed contract negotiations or otherwise, in his statement he suggests that his desire to leave is a longstanding position, well known by the club and with one rational solution, a ‘change’ which means his imminent departure.
This paints a different picture of the summer, one where Newcastle entered into the transfer market knowing that Isak wanted out and bid for JoĆ£o Pedro and Hugo Ekitike accordingly as potential replacements. In this scenario Isak believed that the club would work diligently to secure a satisfactory outcome for both parties only for the Ekitike bid to set off a series of events which seemed to put his expected move to Liverpool in doubt. With Newcastle perhaps playing hardball or keeping schtum as to Isak’s availability, not only did they lose out on Ekitike but their bid alerted Liverpool who felt obliged to make a move for one of the game’s few attainable top-class striking talents.
In football and so much in life, money is at the root of all rancour. Most sources place Alexander Isak’s current salary at around Ā£120,000 per week: a whopping sum, but Isak has scored the third most goals in the Premier League over the past couple of seasons, behind Mo Salah and Erling Haaland who respectively earn weekly salaries of about Ā£400,000 and Ā£500,000.
At the same time Newcastle – who have now qualified for the Champions League in two of the past three seasons and ended a 56-year trophy drought by winning last year’s League Cup – must still butt against PSR concerns with the club’s revenues dwarfed by those of the ‘big six’. Newcastle brought in Ā£320 million over the course of the 2023-24 season while Liverpool took home Ā£614 million, with the revenues of the biggest clubs still buttressed by regular European football, a growing chasm in commercial streams plus newfangled concepts like the Club World Cup whose inaugural edition this summer allowed Chelsea to walk away with Ā£85 million.
As a result Newcastle simply cannot match the top wages of their rivals while continuing to maintain a competitive squad. Eddie Howe has proven himself to be one of the top coaches around when it comes to forging a team spirit and getting the best out of his players, with many of Newcastle’s senior figures from the likes of Fabian SchƤr and Dan Burn to Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno GuimarĆ£es seemingly buying in to his vision and making a home for themselves in the area. Still the club has missed out this summer on a host of targets lured by bigger wages, more prestige and the pull of London, from Bryan Mbeumo, JoĆ£o Pedro and Ekitike to Benjamin Å eÅ”ko, who the club seemingly turned to in desperation once the Ekitike bid fell through and Isak’s upset became publicly known, being strung along by someone who like Mbeumo only ever wanted to move to Manchester United.
The youngster Liam Delap also opted to move to Chelsea at the start of the summer despite tough competition for places, while Newcastle’s only sustained pursuit of a competitive backup striker has revolved around the wantaway Brentford forward Yoane Wissa, who perversely enough is playing the exact same game as Isak by training away from the rest of the squad, in his case purging his social media of all photos linked to his time at the West London overachievers. His quest too will be for a higher wage and a bigger stage but with Newcastle’s latest bid of Ā£40 million rejected by Brentford, they seem no closer to striking a deal even as we enter emergency territory with a week and a half of the transfer window remaining.
The club has not cast its net widely enough given the task at hand, a criticism which is especially valid if they have known all along about Isak’s desire to make a move this summer. Links to such varied players as Samu Aghehowa, Ollie Watkins, Nicolas Jackson and Strand Larsen so far appear no more than tenuous. With the likes of Viktor Gyƶkeres, Victor Osimhen and Jonathan David also making big moves there is now a dearth of striking talent available for the foreseeable future. Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest appear to have played it smarter with the relatively low-cost signings of Evann Guessand and Arnaud Kalimuendo, two young strikers from France with plenty of upside.
Otherwise the summer transfer business at Newcastle has proceeded glacially but at least somewhat successfully. Possessing a remarkable penchant for putting his foot in his mouth, the blundering sporting director Paul Mitchell left Newcastle after less than a year at the end of June, while the chief executive Darren Eales announced last September that he would be stepping down after being diagnosed with a chronic form of blood cancer, though almost a year on his position still awaits a replacement. In their absence it is Andy Howe and Steve Nickson – billed as heads of recruitment – who have been conducting most of the summer activity.
It’s unclear to what extent those personnel changes might have impacted Newcastle’s plans or led to crossed wires with Isak. While all the talk ahead of the summer was about haste and the potential targeting of the PSR deadline, Elanga with his pace and athleticism down the right flank at least amounts to something like a first choice and will add balance to the squad as he competes for a place with Jacob Murphy. Newcastle then had to wait to secure the services of Malick Thiaw for Ā£35 million and Jacob Ramsey for a provisional Ā£39 million, with both players a part of the club’s long-term or hand-me-down wishlist. Physically and technically Thiaw has all the makings of a top centre-back but is prone to mistakes, while Ramsey offers athleticism as well as a touch of creativity and attacking intent with the two players likely to supplement Newcastle’s current crop of players. After missing out on another year-long target in James Trafford, the club also cannily managed to add Aaron Ramsdale on loan who boosts the goalkeeping department.
Newcastle have therefore spent more than Ā£130 million without adding a game-changing star name, but they have amassed what is surely the strongest squad of Eddie Howe’s tenure. Yet the lack of a striker threatens to derail their season. The campaign is already underway with a 0-0 draw away to Aston Villa during the Premier League’s opening weekend showing the club precisely what they are missing, as they smothered an underwhelming Villa side without being clinical in front of goal. With the midfield tenacious as always but on this particular weekend lacking a bit of quality and Harvey Barnes leaving his shooting boots at home, up front Anthony Gordon huffed and puffed and no doubt aided the team’s pressing endeavours even as he and Elanga spurned the chances which might have given their side the three points.
Isak was nowhere to be seen, much like Wissa at Brentford. The addition of the Congolese striker would come with a sigh of relief even though Newcastle may at this point significantly overpay for someone who is about to turn 29 and threatens to miss a crucial part of the season due to the Africa Cup of Nations. Nicolas Jackson the hardworking but erratic Chelsea and Senegal forward is available but appears to be attracting notice from other clubs while JĆørgen Strand Larsen is an object of interest even though the Norwegian international only signed for Wolves at the start of July after a successful loan spell.
If Isak remains at Newcastle beyond the close of the transfer window on 1 September, it could take months for him to be reunited with the squad with no guarantees as to a happy outcome. With little doubt, he has already been in contact with Liverpool and would remain one of the game’s hottest properties even after a lacklustre season. With days to make a decision – whether to keep an unhappy player or yield and scramble to secure a couple of replacements – Newcastle are facing an uphill battle when it comes to their preparations for a campaign which poses challenges on four fronts, with a deep run in the Champions League one of the surest ways to bridge the gap between them and their competitors.
What makes little sense for either party but especially for the club is a season-long standoff whereby Isak remains on the margins. Far from looking tough, from the club’s perspective the move would likely further strain their already tetchy relationship with player agents and put nagging doubts in the minds of aspiring stars who want to compete for big salaries and major titles. While each instance of incorrigibility is treated as a brand new outrage, the broad sequence of events – a wantaway player who excuses themselves from the pre-season, plays hijinks on social media and even misses the first few competitive games – is nothing new and will probably repeat itself to a greater or lesser extent so long as the club continues to attract top talents without being able to afford the top wages. Success begets success and that for Newcastle does not involve a disinterested star, endless media gossip and probably one makeshift striker on which to build a season.
Liverpool are not out of the woods either. The death of Diogo Jota in a car accident and the sales of Luis DĆaz and Darwin NĆŗƱez seem to leave them short in the attack despite a Ā£300 million outlay, especially with Mo Salah also expected to miss a succession of games around the turn of the year due to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Up front Hugo Ekitike has started the season with aplomb, scoring after just four minutes in his first competitive match even as Liverpool lost to Crystal Palace on penalties in the Community Shield before leading their tally in the Premier League as his side belatedly stretched to an opening day victory against Bournemouth at Anfield. Yet there were rumours of attitude problems after he signed for Paris Saint-Germain while his chattering hands celebration last Friday reinforces the notion that he is not the type of character who will be happy playing second fiddle. The addition of him and Liverpool’s current record signing in Florian Wirtz to an attack that has previously been so reliant on Salah poses wider questions about compatibility and morale even before any last-minute move for Isak.
As the club continue to transition away from the tempos and fiery gesticulations of JĆ¼rgen Klopp towards the cooler though no less adventurous stylings of Arne Slot, there are also question marks about Liverpool defensively. Their captain and leader Virgil van Dijk is now 34 while his centre-back partner Ibrahima KonatĆ© is rumoured to be bound for Real Madrid, like Trent Alexander-Arnold likely to head to the Spanish capital for nothing upon the expiration of his contract. Their touted interest in the Crystal Palace and England defender Marc GuĆ©hi – incidentally another player to spurn Newcastle – might be another move that goes right down to the wire though Palace appear willing to do business.
Isak is something of an outlier at Newcastle, whose players otherwise seem settled despite some of the changes that continue to take place behind the scenes. The reaction of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Newcastle United chairman and governor of Saudi Arabia’s voracious Public Investment Fund – who apparently considers Isak his favourite player – was once seen as a wild card but in a world where truth and favour are up for grabs he has other concerns and does not appear to have ruled out a transfer. Yet where it counts in the dressing room and on the pitch the Isak saga may for the time being serve to further unify his stranded teammates and help Newcastle forge something of a siege mentality.
Liverpool as they shift to a new style and face the loss of an ageing Salah and Van Dijk over the next couple of years might find themselves in just as much flux. In the north east Isak can still be the spearhead of a bright young attack without shouldering the pressure of playing for one of England’s favoured clubs and having to replace an all-time great, or without having to watch his step so that he does not tread on the toes of his fellow professionals. Perhaps the most perverse thing about this whole affair is that even after scorching the earth and savaging his own reputation, Isak may still be best set up to succeed at Newcastle.
