Football agent unpicks Alexander Isak situation – Intriguing insight | OneFootball

Sky Andrew is a football agent. He knows his stuff, as proved when he helped to negotiate Sol Campbell’s move from Spurs to Arsenal in 2001.

Perhaps you have forgotten the storm that generated.

Arsenal paid no transfer fee, because Campbell left Spurs when his contract expired.

Depending on where you stand, Campbell quite rightly honoured his contract or he cynically refused to extend his deal, to ensure he made a lot of money from the quick trip across north London.

Andrew was interviewed by Sky Sports News on Friday night and did a pretty good job of explaining what is likely to have happened — and not happened — since Alexander Isak joined Newcastle United three years ago.

While Andrew is not privy to confidential information, he has made some reasonable assumptions.

First, he gave the background.

Going back to 2022, Alexander Isak signs a six-year contract at Newcastle without a buyout clause. The agent takes, say, 10% of the player’s gross income, which is possibly £100k a week, roughly £5m a year or £30m in total. The agent receives £3m commission, normally paid over the six years of the player’s contract.

Let Sky Andrew take up the story.

“The agent might say to the club, ‘I want this commission in two payments or three payments. He can only say that if the club feels the agent has helped the club. I call it a ‘soft agent’.

“A club is going to say, ‘Well, maybe we can give you [the commission in] two payments, three payments, because this is a good situation for us, we have a player on a six-year contract with no buyout clause.

“The problem is that, as soon as the agent gets their last payment, they are looking for their next move.

“Now, I don’t want to pour scorn on my profession but you will have noticed that only Isak is seen as the bad guy. There is something going on behind the scenes where he is being advised to behave in a certain way.

“If he gets his move this isn’t a good situation for football, because there are young footballers out there, thinking, ‘Ah, that’s the way to do it’.

“Players have got to take responsibility for whoever looks after them. It’s obvious that world-class players need world-class advice. They need people who have hindsight and foresight.

“If anybody is telling me that this player came to Newcastle and nobody expected him to be successful, then why is he playing football?

“Now he is forcing himself into a move, Liverpool could quite rightly say to him, ‘We want a 20-year contract and no buyout’, because he has nowhere else to go.”

Andrew is then asked about Isak’s statement, in which he said promises were reneged upon.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. We’re in a multibillion-pound industry. Any promises have to be put in black and white [no irony intended] in a contract. If it’s not put in a contract, then it doesn’t exist. If it’s not in a contract, you cannot expect anyone to honour it.

“For the player to say he was made promises, that’s a reflection on his representatives. Players just want to play football. The common thing is, clubs will say, ‘Don’t worry, just come and knock on our door [if there’s an issue].

“That’s just not good enough. He’s a world-class asset. You can’t blame Newcastle for giving him a six-year contract. Well played.

“But when it comes down to the divorce, the divorce has to be negotiated at the same time as the marriage.

“There are too many agents out there doing an average job. I don’t want to criticise this agent in particular because I’m not 100% sure what has gone on behind the scenes but this situation should never arise.

“By the way, after three years it’s mooted that he [Isak] was supposed to get another contract. OK, so he gets another contract. That contract has to be extended. So if [initially] he got a six-year contract, £30m, any new contract would be for longer. So if he got this so-called new contract, what are we looking at now? He wants to leave with, say, five years left on his contract?