My barber in Scotland was a Syrian lad who was football mad. His English wasn’t perfect (and also buggered up from living in Glasgow) and he couldn’t pronounce “Lionel” properly.
For some reason he referred to him as “Mr Messi” and all I could think of was this chap:
When Newcastle reneged on what Alexander Isak thought was the promise of a new contract last summer, it was always likely to be a case of when and not if he would tell the club he wanted to leave.
The 25-year-old has now informed the hierarchy of his desire to explore a move away, with Liverpool poised to make a British record offer.
Former co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi were the allies who had reassured Isak and his camp in March of last year that improved terms were on the way.
The husband-and-wife team left the club in July, against their wishes, and a new management structure was established, with chief executive Darren Eales appointing Paul Mitchell as sporting director.
Mitchell, not without reason given the club’s Profit and Sustainability peril, took the view that Isak had four years to run on his contract and was already among the top earners.
The Swede was told that the salary he wanted, and expected, would not be forthcoming. An accountancy decision, yes, but one that failed to account for the human reaction at the other end of it.
Isak was said to be furious and, when Eddie Howe spoke last season of ‘an unsettled dressing room’ coming out of the summer, this was no doubt one of the grievances within it.
The striker did not start the season well. He scored one goal in seven matches and his body language was, at times, a concern for staff. In a rare departure from his usual media strategy, Howe sent a message back to those star players who were underperforming. He would not have done this without speaking to them first, it should be noted.
‘We need to make sure we’re delivering our part as a football club for them,’ he said in October. ‘But also the player has to perform to that level. If he’s saying he has huge ambitions, he has to be actually doing the business on the pitch - it’s a two-way thing, the challenge is always thrown back. As a player you can sit down and say I want to play European football, but you then have to play to that level as well.’
Isak’s misgivings were not confined to his bank account and the belief that, with some justification, he was being paid way below his market value. He, like others, wanted to see the club and its Saudi owners show more ambition, not just talk about it in Amazon documentaries.
The players wanted - and want - new signings, a new training ground, tangible signals of intent and progression.
But because of Howe’s management, his brilliant staff and a strong dressing room rich in talent and leadership, they were able to shelve those concerns and concentrate on football. The upshot? A first domestic trophy in 70 years. There is, with hindsight, a degree of irony about Isak being on the scoresheet in the 2-1 win over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.
After that, however, his form tailed off, even if he continued to score and finished the campaign on 27 goals. But when he pulled out of a key game at Arsenal on the penultimate weekend of the season citing muscle fatigue, there was a feeling among some that he was starting to check out.
And so we arrive here, with Newcastle in Singapore without Isak. The reason given is that he has a slight thigh injury and medical staff cannot say otherwise, even if scans appear to show no serious damage.
We can reveal that he trained on Monday but left the pitch after a few minutes and returned to the main building. He has not trained since. The thigh complaint was first flagged before last Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Celtic and Howe allowed him to return home rather than sit in the stands, especially amid speculation over his future.
Afterwards, the head coach said he hoped and believed Isak would be a Newcastle player come the new season. But for those with knowledge of the situation, it was the following quote that felt most telling. ‘All I can say is that Alex is happy at Newcastle - he loves the players, the staff, the team,’ said Howe.
Now all of that can still be true. He has nothing but respect and admiration for those with whom he works on daily basis, as well as supporters. But the club beyond the training ground? You wouldn’t be so sure. When Eales said in March that a new contract would be revisited this summer, my first reaction was, he probably doesn’t want one. That has proven to be the case.
There remains a chance that Liverpool do not make the sales to raise the funds to finance a deal of around £150million, and Isak could well sign enhanced terms to stay for one more season.
But a player’s career is fleeting. It is understandable that he wants to accelerate his journey with a 26th birthday in September. Him telling the club of his wishes is not a bargaining chip for more money. He does not want to play in the Champions League, he wants to win it. You have to say that is not an unwarranted ambition.
So what happens now? Isak is not a bad character. I learnt as much when spending a few days in Stockholm before the Carabao Cup final, invited into the old Cold War nuclear bunker that doubles as AIK’s academy, where Isak was made.
His former coaches and team-mates I spent time with were good people, and so, by extension, is Isak. He is laid back, transmits an effortless cool but, with it, has a mischievous sense of humour.
When Bruno Guimaraes sang a song about Sandro Tonali in front of 100,000 Geordies during the Cup parade that included the line, ‘He hates f***** Sunderland’, it was Isak who put him up to it. What does all of this mean? He will not be enjoying the current situation.*
At the same time, however, he will know that the strength of Newcastle’s hand, given the three years to run on his contract, will mean he has to agitate, to an extent, for a move. He is being advised by Vlado Lemic, his Serbian agent, who is less afraid to make apple carts weep.
Liverpool are readying a formal approach and, once that happens, Newcastle will have a decision to make. Reject and risk having an unhappy player for the summer and beyond.
Or accept Isak’s wishes and move on, banking a PSR-busting British record transfer fee with it. Both are not without great danger. It is interesting, though, that sources say Newcastle are making discreet enquiries over a big-ticket frontman. One player they have watched for a long time is RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko and we understand exploratory contact has been made, while a £35m deal for Brentford’s Yoane Wissa is expected to progress over the weekend.
As for Isak, he is at home on Tyneside nursing an injury, officially. If he is still missing by the time Newcastle kick off the season at Aston Villa in three weeks, it will have nothing to do with his thigh.
Newcastle now apparently in contact with Sesko
Seems that Newcastle not managing to land many transfer targets earlier on made the likes of Isak pretty jittery.
The money is one thing ofcourse but if he wants a run at the CL. There are very few clubs with the bandwidth to sign him.
I love it. We can negotiate on the price and stick to our previous offer without it going to the ridiculous.
If PIF do us a favour and buy Nunez for 65m GBP or more. All the better.
Newcastle have had some false starts in terms of the PIF era making them an attractive place to land. They have had fewer statement signings than they have had disappointing windows that signaled to in demand players that its not the best place to be if you have options. Had they already landed Ekitike the comparison to Phil and Barca might be better, but as it is selling a want away player now would put money in their pocket, but money they have shown they have difficulty spending on the caliber of player they need.
Remember, he has made “very clear he is a big fan of Isak” and is reported to be quite angry at our approach
Don’t think they have a sporting director since Mitchell left. I suppose that plays a part too.
Could be a foil to Isak or even be as Isak’s back up?
Sesko probably feels he needs to make the next step up but hasn’t been able to attract a firm bid from more established top four sides so may be willing to join and bide his time.
I know fuck all about PIF or PSR but whats to stop this chairman from telling Isak to do a few adverts and promote some of their businesses and cutting him a cheque for £100m?
He’s been gone less than a month. It puts them in a difficult situation this summer, but Newcastle’s difficulty in matching their external resources to their strength in the transfer market, only in in part because of PSR, goes several years beyond that. Isak is one of the few statements they have been able to make in this era (arguably only him and Tonali) and losing him, regardless of how well put together their backroom team was, would be a strong signal to the potential players and put them in a position that was not easy to respond to.
Again, the comparison to Phil falls down because we had already brought in Mo and so had a version of a strongest XI already that did not include him. Newcastle would have to go out and find a replacement of which there are very few who would match up to what he has given them and even fewer (none?) who are available to them with their current level of pull.
The league voted in stronger rules on Associated Party Transactions after the PIF take over to limit precisely this. It has obviously been an issue since the City take over because that is largely the issue at hand over City’s 117 charges (not so much the deals, but the dodgy accounting of them), but they wanted to strengthen the rules once Saudis came in. City have filed 2 separate legal challenges to the newly approved rules and the league have already pivoted to bolster their defense against these cases. Where this will land is not clear, but if I was a player I would not be making decisions on the assumption my income expectations would be met with APT deals.
I agree with this, but want to add the covid caveat.
I think FSG would have made a few moves to kick on and try to strengthen from a position of strength, but there were so many unknowns in the world at the time. With the pandemic there was a time, at least for a while, where dependable financial models for the sport were guesswork at best, so rather than splash the cash on a few signings FSG chose to weather the pandemic storm and see how we came out of it.
I can’t really blame them for that.
They have been good owners for us. Stadium, training, great recruitment at all levels, commercial growth. The one criticism has been that they have been a bit too cautious, but given the chance they now have to put their foot down from a position of strength, that criticism no longer rings true.
More links to other players for other strikers, this time strand Larsen
We have a whole scouting and data department to figure this shit out, but Isak can’t be the only striker in the world good enough for us.
You know what to do Hughesy…
Maybe reframing that gives us a better sense of what is happening - it is less that he is the only striker in the world good enough, but more that he is considered so good that he is worth pursuing when we don’t need him if we think there is a possibility he is obtainable.
hahaha.. Accept our bid of 100 million or we buy Sesko for 60 million 
Maybe that’s what our Scouting department believes.
Already been talk about how they see our setup in articles from Paul Joyce. Evidently we are changing but we also need a squad.
So we aren’t spending 150m on a back up nethier have we spent 78m on one.
Florian Wirtz doesn’t fit the rigid 4-3-3 but we haven’t bought him for backup in case we fancy a change on 70 minutes.
Which has been my point all along, there’s a gaping chasm between wanting him and needing him.
Not a bad striker. Won’t come cheap this far down in the transfer window.
