Newcastle United Now Facing Nightmare Alexander Isak Scenario

Since Saturday’s pre-season defeat at Celtic, the Alexander Isak saga at Newcastle United has taken a difficult turn for those inside the club. Liverpool’s admiration for the Swedish striker is well known, and expectation has been growing for weeks that the Premier League champions would make a move to sign him. Newcastle always held firm, believing Isak would not force anything.

As of Thursday, that assumption looks to have backfired.

Isak is understood to have told Newcastle he wants to explore his options this summer, having not been named in the travelling party for the tour of Asia, which jetted off this morning. It comes after he was sent home from Glasgow at the weekend before being photographed training alone earlier this week. The club is maintaining he suffered a minor thigh injury, its justification for his most recent absence too, but the narrative has spiralled.

Once it emerged that Isak had made his feelings known to Newcastle, with The Athletic claiming he preferred not to take part in either the Celtic match or the tour, many pieced together where this had seemingly always been heading. But for all the fall out from what is clearly been an extremely damaging day, little has actually changed.

It is not news that Isak wants to consider a switch to Liverpool or anywhere. Whilst he hasn’t gone public, the lack of denial became deafening, and one key Howe quote has become extremely relevant.

“I’ve had discussions with (Isak),” Howe told reporters at the weekend. “But that’s not abnormal. I respect a player’s career and how short it is. Alex has been really good, he’s trained really well and I realise there’ll be noise around him.”

Whilst not saying anything outright, the inference from the ‘career is short’ part can be that Isak told Howe what has now become public knowledge. But it also gives insight into a dynamic which means Newcastle is still in a strong position, albeit having to accept that the dynamic has changed in a huge way this week.

Isak still needs to force Newcastle to change its stance, and the club has been ready for this. He is not the kind of person to push in a big way; he loves the club, fans, city, and in particular Howe and his team-mates. It is far from inconceivable that he could keep his head down this season and perform as he has for the last three, or even sign a new contract on improved terms.

But all of this is being said while Liverpool remains an interested bystander. All summer, it has briefed its interest in a deal if given encouragement; never has there been more. The Reds could now bid, despite having completed the signing of former Newcastle target Hugo Ekitike, and Newcastle’s resolve will meet its sternest test. How Isak’s camp would react would also be telling; there is also the possibility that broadcasting his intentions could attract wider interest, too.

Has Alexander Isak made a strategic error?

This is where the question of timing comes in, though. As mentioned, interest in Isak has been an open secret for months; his agents have held conversations with other clubs for some time. Liverpool and Arsenal have been the most heavily linked, but only now, after Ekitike completed his move to Anfield and Viktor Gyokeres, his Sweden team-mate, closes in on a move to North London, has the twist emerged.

Surely the time to speak up was last week, when Newcastle could have secured Ekitike as his replacement and Liverpool would have firmed up its interest. While many insist Arne Slot’s team can afford both, sales need to be made. Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliot are all expected to depart, but if that has to happen before Isak can be considered, it is far from certain.

To make a play now, with no obvious direction of travel, and Newcastle in an even more desperate state to keep him, is a curious decision to say the least, considering he has three years to run on his existing contract.

The club has matched his ambition on the pitch, winning its first major trophy in 70 years and qualifying again for the Champions League. There has been a quiet acceptance inside Newcastle that if a new deal couldn’t be agreed, Isak would depart for a huge profit next summer. That was the thought behind signing Ekitike; the player would have more sway with just two years left and more clubs could be ready to make a move. Barcelona, for example, has scouted Isak and will be looking for replacement for Robert Lewandowski in 2026.

But Isak is already one of the best strikers in the world and deserves to be paid like one. He isn’t at Newcastle – earning £120,000-per-week ($162,000) – and, although there has always been hope of a compromise, is unlikely to ever get the sort of wages players of his ilk command. Also, as important as the Champions League is to Isak, he wants to win it, not simply play in it.

It has been clear from the moment Isak scored his first Newcastle goal that he would likely outgrow the club. Profit and Sustainability Rules have handcuffed its ability to improve, which has frustrated the players too. Last summer, there was all kinds of unrest, and Isak wasn’t immune.

After reportedly being told he would be in line for a new deal in the spring of 2024 by former shareholder Amanda Staveley, he was then of interest to Chelsea before Staveley departed. Paul Mitchell arrived as sporting director and is said to have shelved the plans, leaving the player and his agent furious (per the Mail).

Nothing quite sums up the contrasting nature of the current era at Newcastle; fiercely ambitious, yet tightly constrained. Similar stories of discontent surrounded Anthony Gordon last summer, and he ended up signing a new contract at St James’ Park. All is not lost in the Isak story.

It feels as though Newcastle took Isak’s laid back manner for granted. It didn’t make signing a new contract a priority this summer, choosing instead to target new arrivals before coming to discussions later on. Only one signing – admittedly a close friend of Isak’s in Anthony Elanga – is through the door now the club is in a difficult situation.

Frustrating your best player and refusing to engage until it is too late is not a good sign. Selling Isak would have been a bad idea at any stage this summer, but with the lack of signings and growing fan frustration, doing so now would be an unmitigated disaster.

Newcastle’s position remains strong but the situation is incredibly delicate. Howe is an excellent man-manager, players will run through brick walls for him. After last season’s difficult summer, he talked the squad, and Isak, down; this year it’ll be even more of a challenge.

This was supposed to be the summer when everything clicked and Newcastle went to the next level, suddenly it is fighting to survive its biggest nightmare.