Who says it was BS? We have no idea what promises are made and I doubt Liverpool act like angels either. Everyone is trying to get what they want.
Difference in the handling is that Liverpool acted decisively and allowed the sale without engaging in a war of words using friendly journalists. It all happened behind closed doors.
Newcastle think look they look tough here, standing up to their own CF and refusing to even negotiate a British record transfer fee, but they actually look a bit pathetic and incompetant. Given the number of players who have rejected them this summer it’s probably not gone unnoticed that Newcastle will only let you leave on their terms. Few players see Newcastle as a final desrinstion for their career.
Howe was out there last year saying that Newcastle have no money and Isak needs to be reasonable over contract demands especially given he had multiple years left on his initial contract and should concentrate on football not “off the field” issues.
You dont get to be the “this is the club of the future, come here and realize your footballing dreams” club while at the same time telling everyone they have to sacrifice for the good of the club. Once the club has made that pivot, and publicly called you out, then you dont need an agreement to negotiate with another club. You treat the british transfer record fee your sale will inevitably bring in as a lifeline for this cash strapped club and assume everyone is going to be sensible about it. Especially as you know they know they have already gone back on their word about what they will give you and you have given them LOADS of time to put together their continuity planning.
Again, Newcastle might be within their legal rights to block it, but most of this conversation has not been about legality, but who is being a shit to whom. Newcastle have sold a vision for the club to prospective players and then once they arrive they tell them reality is different. If Newcastle were serious about becoming the club they say they want to be, instead of just complaining about how unfair rules are, they would gleefully take the Isak money and understand they will need to go through a few cycles of this to build themselves into something that matches the vision they have sold. Yes I am biased, maybe, but that is where the criticism should be IMO. They are acting like a petulant child at the world not being fair.
Not needing a player hasn’t always stopped Chelsea from buying one or two.
I noticed in Maresca’s presser comments he makes the point that Pedro can play anywhere across the front and isn’t only CF. So he could be shoved out wide and Delap could used from the bench if Chelsea got it into their heads to get Isak.
They have two other senior international forwards they are currently trying to offload because there isnt room for them. Nothing about Chelsea makes sense, so maybe, but there isnt much sense in them throwing their hat into the ring. Not least because I think they are even more focused than we are in getting players at the right age and he is a year or two too old for him to make sense for “their model.”
Don’t think Chelsea have had much luck with strikers. Their last good striker was probably Costa and before that Drogba. Almost all of their big ticket striker signings have been abject failures. Torres / Shevchenko / Morata / Lukaku / Jackson.
That said, I don’t think they’ll go in for Isak. Firstly, the age. They want to get players in with a lesser wage(than what they were doing previously) and secondly, I don’t think the way they play is conducive to having a #9. Not when they’ve got guys like Pedro providing them multiple options.
Is it only luck… not really. Some incredibly poor decisions, especially the one to go for Lukaku for €113m after you had him already and some big lessons at United. Torres was also a bad move, especially at the price they paid.
Torres was probably a move they felt they had to make. A striker setting the world afire at Liverpool. Only the liverpool staff really knew that he had lost a fair bit. Shevchenko was a vanity signing by Roman. Morata came in with a lot of expectations as well. The Lukaku transfer boggles the mind really. Especially after the United days. Jackson was signed by the new regime as someone young who could develop. He’s probably different from the other strikers who were known names by the time they signed.
I might have missed some other names like Joao Felix etc etc there as well.
Chelsea are desperately trying to flog about 5-6 players and are circumventing the transfer market via Strasbourg.
I really don’t think they have the funds or ability to do it. I do think it’s going hit the wall in the next year or two especially if they continue to struggle to shift these players.
That transfer with the player signing a 7 year contract elsewhere sounded dubious, teams don’t really do that let alone clubs further down the food chain.
Liverpool submitted a 110m bid, that was the opening bid, it wasn’t a take it or leave it, like Wirtz the information on what they would accept was sourced from the club.
They rejected out of hand, they could have gone well let’s discuss and reached a deal of around 130m with add ons, we aren’t going back because we don’t think they are being serious.
And having 150m bid wouldn’t change their position one iota as players are rejecting them.
Chelsea are doing 8 year contracts, a player leaves after a year of signing at Chelsea on an 8 year contract to go somewhere else on a 7, Chelsea are propping up that no two ways about it.
As I said big clubs will do it, those further down less so.
They’ve shifted 250m so far and yet have 6 remaining.
We’ve shifted about that. They sold the woman’s team and are now doing deals via Strasbourg they aren’t being run well and they aren’t in a as financially rosey position as most assume.
Apparently they are also after Xavi Simons, evidently they aren’t going to bidding 130-150m for Isak any time this window.
My take is that the club have no back-up option. How would that work out anyway? LFC saying to a potential back-up option: ‘Hold on, we try to get Isak, but if it doesn’t work, then we’ll come back to you and buy you at the last hour of the transfer window’. It would be unprofessional to the core, and we know that Edwards and Hughes are as good professionals as it gets.
So, in all likeliness, we’ll go into the new season as we are now if Isak doesn’t somehow manage to wrestle himself off Newcastle’s grip. Maybe Edwards and Hughes will then make another attempt in January.
With football the exception comes from the terms of the standard PL contract that includes mandatory terms, one of which is that variations must be agreed between the parties in writing.