Anger at Alexander Isak reveals biggest regret from summer transfer saga | OneFootball

Villa Park was emptying when a chant emerged from a corner. “One greedy ba*****,” they sang, and it wasn’t the Aston Villa fans referring to the £77 price of tickets in the Holte End for a 0-0 draw. Alexander Isak, unnamed but the object of the Newcastle supporters’ ire, may object to both the noun and the adjective. He might argue that ambition, not avarice, is driving his attempts to leave Newcastle.

He will get his way. The issue is when; where, too, depending on if his departure comes in this transfer window, January’s or next summer’s. By then, Anfield may not be the destination. One weekend does not mean plans are ripped up and nine-figure bids abandoned, but the early evidence is that Newcastle need Isak rather more than Liverpool do. There was a sliding-doors scenario whereby Isak had been allowed to go to Liverpool because Newcastle secured Hugo Ekitike. Instead, the Frenchman is Anfield’s new darling. Newcastle can congratulate themselves on their ability to identify high-class strikers and lament their inability to sign them – since Isak, anyway.

Now Newcastle have the worst of all worlds: without Isak’s services, without a replacement, without an injection of around £110m, without any goals at Villa Park. Eddie Howe praised the players who had made themselves available but, by invoking the word “distraction”, he conceded there was one. Howe called for a “resolution”.

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Alexander Isak has refused to play for Newcastle while he demands a move away (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

In one respect, he is guaranteed one within 15 days. The transfer window will close and when Howe said the door was open for Isak, he meant to come back into the fold. The striker may have checked out mentally – and moved out physically, from his house in the north-east – but contractually he is still in.

Howe has said a lot while saying a little. A recurring theme is that the situation is out of his hands. Yet that could be construed in different ways. “Alex has to decide what he wants to do. He is in control of what he does,” his manager said on Saturday. But only in the sense that Isak could opt to come out of his self-imposed exile; he is not in control of an exit.

Not mentioned as explicitly, but with their own form of control over Isak’s destiny, are Howe’s ultimate employers, Newcastle’s owners. Yasir Al-Rumayyan and the Saudi Arabian PIF have adopted an uncompromising stance so far; they may be a regime unaccustomed to backing down. Perhaps Liverpool have not endeared themselves to a club they hope to raid – signing Ekitike, noting that Newcastle also wanted Giovanni Leoni – which could make them still more determined not to grant the Premier League champions their wishes.

So it would represent a U-turn if Newcastle suddenly opted to sell. Some would say that, of everyone, the club that had the tag of the world’s richest has the least need to. Yet Howe raised the subject of PSR at Villa Park; it has been a constraint on their spending and Newcastle would have considerable leeway if they cashed in on Isak. That said, they are struggling to spend on strikers, regardless of budget.

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Eddie Howe’s side opened their season with a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa (Getty Images)

One interpretation is that Isak is bringing his price down, his actions rendering it less likely that Newcastle can command £150m. Yet he is not in the strongest bargaining position. If Newcastle do not relent, the eventual verdict on his summer may be that he miscalculated: by making his efforts to go public knowledge, he alienated the Newcastle public; by stepping up his attempts to leave when Arsenal were closing in on Viktor Gyokeres and Liverpool on Ekitike, he may regret not being more militant earlier in the summer. Has he misread Newcastle? Would he have been better coming to an arrangement where he was permitted to go in 2026 for an agreed fee?

If he stays against his wishes, it will be instructive if he has burnt his (Tyne) bridges. The relationship with the fans who used to borrow from Abba to sing about a “striker from Sweden” has altered irrevocably. Perhaps it can be patched up, but the love feels gone. Two players scored in the final as Newcastle won their first trophy since 1969, which should have secured legendary status. One, Dan Burn, is a lifelong fan. The other soon sought to join the beaten finalists.

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Newcastle look like they need a striker a lot more than Liverpool do (John Walton/PA Wire)

If Isak is proof that football can be fickle, he is not alone in that. He scored 21 and 23 goals in the last two Premier League seasons. If he is reintegrated, if there is a pragmatic recognition that he is stuck at St James’ Park, and finds similar form, supporters may celebrate his goals, and maybe even the player himself, without the love really returning, and Newcastle will benefit in the short term. But if so, will Liverpool have blinked first in the Isak impasse and brought in another attacker, rather than sitting and waiting?

So someone won’t get their perfect resolution. Perhaps no one will. But the greatest risk may be for Isak himself. He might not get his, whether now or even next year. He might have played his last game for Newcastle. He may not enjoy the soundtrack in their next game. Because they face Liverpool and it feels a certainty that he will line up for neither of the clubs at a standstill in a tug of war.