Arsenal should have been competing for him instead of wasting money on Gyokeres. Too late now.
2 Likes
Only 28 posts since I last checked, so nothing has happened yet 
2 Likes
You are lucky,went to bed last night up to date,and this morning there were 184 and still nothing!
3 Likes
I think I’m in the minority when I say I didn’t want Isak to come here when news first broke out that he went on strike and it lasted beyond a few days).
I’m all for making a point. But beyond that it was unprofessional as is this airing out of laundry in the press.
This recent “update” is even more of a dealbreaker for me… Yes, I know there are examples of it happening in our favour in the past. But I believe it is time we walk away from this type of stuff. You can’t be making vague comments in the press that can’t be substantiated and are meant to just creste turmoil. Broken promises could mean a missed lunch date.
they are are apparently close to deal for Sorloth, which would make it even harder for them to let another forward now
Howe was calling him out in public over this about 12 months ago. How good a season Isak ultimately had, and everyone’s short memories (and maybe a lack of fucks given about Newcastle) means it seems to have been swept under the rug that this has been rumbling for a while and the club were the ones who brought it into public.
A short period of so so form resulted in grumbling from the fans and Howe responded not by backing his player, but publicly criticizing him and his attitude alluding to a difficult contract situation and Isak not being focused on the right thing. And the underlying situation was Newcastle were not in a strong financial position and the players needed to get on board with that and adjust their expectations accordingly.
5 Likes
And the €500mil. release clause.
1 Like
I think we know what broken promises means, mate. We don’t have to read too far between the lines for that.
I’m firmly of the opinion that Newcastle have behaved like twats over this.
I’ve had loads of Newcastle fans saying to me that I wouldn’t like it if one of our players was acting like this. Well, no I wouldn’t. But not because of the player - it would mean that something had gone very, very wrong at the strategy and leadership level at the club.
Liverpool don’t have situations like Isak, because generally we are sound about letting players go if they want to. We don’t bullshit players, we don’t break promises, and we don’t spin them whatever they want to hear to get through the next 12 months.
13 Likes
The idea that “he signed a 6 year contract so he should honor that” is a bit nonsensical to me. Both club and player know that the contract length is to provide financial security and both player and club benefit.
I can absolutely see Isak being told that if an offer was come in at £100m+ then they’ll let him negotiate with another club.
I can see, given the turmoil around Newcastle in the boardroom, that the people who made those promises are probably no longer employed at Newcastle and the new people there don’t feel obligated to act on the verbal agreements of the ones who came before them.
Isak feels like his trust in the club has been abused, Newcastle feel like they are looking out for theor own best interests and didn’t make any promises in writing about a sale price.
Liverpool’s bid was probably encouraged by Isak’s agent revealing what they thought the agreed sale price was to test if Newcastle would follow through. Since then Liverpool have backed away and been silent on the issue, the spiralling of the situation has been down to Isak and Newcastle being unable to figure out a solution to the situation.
7 Likes
Yeah, but we also heard BS from Diaz’s camp about broken promises.
Look, I doubt Isak comes up roses in this situation. There is probably a lot of fsult on his side too.
They inquired about Isak last year.
Thing is that the clubs that can afford him don’t need a #9.
2 Likes
However we got here, here we are, and we have a decision to make.
Give up on Isak and pursue an alternative (who?) Or continue to wait for the situation to play out at NUFC in the hope that we somehow get him for a reasonable fee.
Personally, I’m for the former, with the caveat that I don’t know who the alternative might be.
The club surely knows everything about the market though.
3 Likes
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.
4 Likes
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.
2 Likes
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.”
3 Likes
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.