With just a week left in the summer transfer window, the Alexander Isak transfer saga appears unchanged despite the attempted intervention of Newcastle’s owners on Monday that saw chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan fly in for crunch talks with the superstar striker and to pitch Isak on a new deal.
According to reliable reports, those talks failed to change Isak’s mind. The 25-year-old Sweden International remains set today on joining Liverpool, with the Reds maintaining their stance of being willing to pay
a British record fee for Isak—though they are not willing to meet Newcastle’s proposed £150M valuation.
Further complicating matters is Newcastle’s ongoing failures in the transfer market, with the club reportedly failing to sign striker targets. With Isak on strike, that has left manager Eddie Howe with no established strikers to call on and forced him to use winger Anthony Gordon as a makeshift centre forward.
On Monday against Liverpool in a 3-2 defeat for Newcastle, Gordon was given a violent conduct red card that will rule him out for the next three matches. Newcastle’s stated goal has always been that, in addition to an exceptional fee, they would need to sign two strikers before sanctioning Isak’s departure.
Meanwhile, despite having recently sold Luis Diaz and Darwin Nuñez and currently carrying less attacking depth than they had last season, Liverpool have shown no signs of pivoting to a Plan B. It adds up to a situation where time is very much running out and everybody looks set to end the window unhappy.
For Liverpool, to not sign another attacker after selling Diaz and Nuñez would undermine their hoped-for title defence and has the potential to be remembered as a shocking recruiting failure. For Isak, the relationship with Newcastle has broken down to a degree that would make reintegration difficult.
For Newcastle, given the current state of affairs it’s hard to imagine Isak’s value wouldn’t plummet in January or next summer if they forced him to stay. Yet it’s also clear asking Gordon to be their centre forward until at least January isn’t sustainable. In short, nobody’s happy. And time is running out.
