Probably best to step away now before this spirals out of control, the Newcastle media turn the fans against him, the fans start losing their shit - burning shirts and singing songs like “there’s only 1 greedy bastard” and the Newcastle chairman flies in from Jeddah for emergency meetings and gets everyone’s heads on the chopping block.
Just a couple of steps back would prevent all this.
It’ll have been the gentlemens agreement with Staveley, and it was around him getting a new contract.
On the one hand, club probably should have honoured it a) proves to other players they operate in good faith, B) they engage in similar behaviour with their targets (see Gordon/Wissa both going on strike prior to moves) so can’t really strop about one of theirs doing the same, c) they’ve yet to fully establish themselves in European football (as regular consecutive seasons) so will need to be shopping a rung or two below the top level and will find it easier to convince players they are a worthwhile destination as they develop if they don’t stand in the way of their progress.
On the other hand, as has been seen many times before in football, if you don’t have it writing it don’t mean shit. Isak/his agent shouldn’t have automatically assumed a gentleman’s agreement would have been stuck to. Especially with their owners. Naiveté in action.
My stance throughout the entire Isak saga has been that it would be a luxury signing but should not be a priority and the price quoted is too much.
I will say, it’s going to be interesting to see the fallout from this. Newcastle’s club statement effectively treating him like a naughty child is not something that I think will go down well.
This is a journo who’s been vocal with the NUFC perspective. Look at how unprofessional and borderline deranged this conduct is. Keep this in mind when evaluating the info that’s being put out there
https://x.com/lukeedwardstele/status/1957930263767364050?s=61&t=VxX1vHU3NOwwNhlbyICG-g
The biggest risk is for them to lose the ownership of the Saudis who will put them up for sale even though they are partly responsible for this mess.
The agreement in question though was just a promise to give him another contract with a raise. It’s difficult to get that in writing.
Employees all over the world experience this sort of backtracking from their employer all the time and most immediately start looking for other work, either due to loss of trust in the management, or the fiscal position of the company. That is where Isak was last season and he seemingly believed that contract or not the money involved plus the long wind up he’d given them meant it was inevitable they’d see the sense in agreeing. What he didn’t account for was their Rick Parry style performance in the market
I understand the frustration of Newcastle supporters. Truly, I get it. I felt the same way with Trent and Coutinho and Suarez and Torres and even Gerrard. It sucks when a great player wants to leave.
But in their frustration towards Isak, they should look at the deeper, underlying issues that plague the club. Keeping Isak won’t solve their lack of a coherent leadership structure or their ability to recruit. That should be far more concerning because it suggests that the club is in a far more precarious situation.
Any other decently organized club would’ve taken a record fee for Isak and reinvested in two or three major reinforcements. Hell, even if they don’t all come this window, they could set themselves up for seasons to come.
Instead, they’re getting into petty back and forths with a player that doesn’t want to play for them. In one breath, they’re claiming that they’d welcome him with open arms, and in another, they’re talking shit about him to their media mouthpieces.
And now they risk a unilateral termination that I have to believe is going to happen if there is no progress and the window is going to shut. They risk damaging their ability to recruit other quality young talents. They risk damaging the morale of their players and impacting their season.
And for what? What do they gain other than a chance to puff out their chests? It’s the act of buffoons, not one of a serious club.
They say that no one is bigger than the club. If that was true, they’d sell him and move on. But in the way they’re acting, they’re making Isak bigger than their club.
They were supposed to have broken ground on a state of the art new stadium and already be in a new training ground by now. Instead the6 are doing piece by piece refurbishments of the existing training ground and still debating stadium options.
For as well as they’ve done on the pitch there is a big gap between the game they talked and what they delivered. Fans of other clubs in the past (fought, hicks and Gillette) have seen that happen and become resigned to the good players wanting to leave, realizing that promises probably aren’t being kept with those players either.
Isak will never play another game for Newcastle. His statement makes it very evident. Their fans might be mad at him but they should be even more mad at the management team for bungling the transfer window this entire summer and not getting a replacement in ASAP.
I’m thinking the Isak deal is very likely now. Might cost us around 130m including add ons. Maybe 115 +15m in possible addons?
Hard to see where this bullshit benefits Newcastle now or into the future.
They try to force him to stay, almost certainly causing disruption and a player who wants gone.
Looks like it is splitting the players and the fans..hardly a win, win!
WTAF are they thinking, players now and into the future will be thinking..Newcastle,no thanks!
Dunno where that leaves them! if,as seems likely this is being driven by the owners, they will at some point take a loss and move on, lot harder for the club,itself.
Typical centre forward play here. No justifying left or right - straight down the middle.
I’d be walking away from this one, especially at the price (both literally and figuratively).
Money better spent on a more versatile forward, or just kept in the bank until a more suitable target arrives.
Isak’s contract value (with 3 years remaining on his contract ) is 17.28M assuming his wages are at 120k per week.
Can he buy himself out of this contract unilaterally ?
If clubs can buy a player out of his contract (to enable them to leave for free and free up the space) , stands to figure that the player can do the same too.
Yes, but it’s easier for me to line up a new job and work a notice period/ just leave and forgo the notice period if I’m desperate to get out of there.
Football has set time frames for being able to start a new job and god knows what the protocol is on a footballer handing in notice (can they? I would assume legally they can). If they can just hand in notice god knows what the minimum amount of time given to keep whatever payment bonuses they would lose by leaving with immediate effect. Also no one knows quite how leaving with immediate effect would work. Are there non compete clauses in the contracts that prevent them from doing so and joining another club within a set time frame?
Football contracts seem to me (admittedly not a remotely law/contract knowledge heavy person) to be more fluid than most others. Remember arsenal activating Suarez’s release clause? John Henry ignored it
And I hope Isak has had recordings of the previous management (Staveley etc) promising him an increased contract. Voice recordings , emails etc. If this goes all the way into court.
And these guys will be booing at the 20th minute for sure. Some of them atleast.
“The silence has allowed people to push their versions of events”
Ok Isak. I’ve read your statement and it still begs the question: Why are you so desperate to leave Newcastle, but not so desperate to submit a formal transfer request?
Somebody call in Sherlock Holmes 
I do think he should hand in an official transfer request but at this point does it actually matter ?
How about the ex-owner and ex-DOF???
because everyone wants the best deal for themselves…