Why Alexander Isak may have closed his own window on dream move to Liverpool | OneFootball

It was only minutes after the PFA team of the year departed the stage at Manchester Opera House on Tuesday, with just 10 players rather than 11, that Alexander Isak decided to make his presence felt in a different way. You could sense the ripple around the room as people began to animatedly tell each other of the Swede’s social statement, the first time that he has publicly spoken on this summer’s dominant saga. More than a few players raised their eyebrows. Everyone was taking it in.

Isak’s talk of broken promises and that a change is best for all parties felt like a point of no return… except Newcastle United are now more determined than ever not to let him go to Liverpool or anywhere else.

It was quite an event for all of this to coincide, and, of course, a significant part of the story. Isak’s performances for Newcastle last season saw him voted into the team chosen by his peers, while also pushing Mohamed Salah for the overall award. Newcastle didn’t block him attending, but they obviously weren’t going to join him, and he himself didn’t feel right appearing.

Although this is the prize the Professional Footballers’ Association is best known for, it is actually a trade union, representing players’ affairs. The Opera House and after-party were consequently full of executives, agents and lawyers – as well as players – trying to make sense of this situation.

A common line was that no normal employee is refused the possibility to just change jobs in this way… but then sport does require special agreements in order to function. We are at a point when many of these agreements are being legally challenged like never before, such as in the Lassana Diarra case, which could yet blow up the global transfer market. The Isak saga may not necessarily help that along, though.

A consensus has grown that the striker might have gone too far.

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Alexander Isak has accused Newcastle of breaking promises (PA Wire)

Players themselves – including some of Isak’s Newcastle teammates – generally empathise with such situations, since it’s a short career and they feel you have to maximise your own opportunities. Most wouldn’t have gone about it like this. Dressing-room insiders, meanwhile, say that Isak’s current teammates feel “let down”, amid split opinions.

While the PFA obviously isn’t going to speak publicly on a player going on strike, the prevailing view is that the union doesn’t like it, because it is not a position that engenders sympathy. Isak has instead managed to create some sympathy for what is essentially a sportswashing project.

It is not the only irony of this situation.

One of many reasons that Isak wants to leave is because he is going to be 26 in September and doesn’t feel Newcastle have the capabilities to compete for the major trophies.

There are many reasons for that, too, but one is dysfunction within the club this summer. And yet it is that very dysfunction that may end up meaning Isak has to stay.

For all the words and circuitous arguments expended on this saga over the past few months, the entire story really comes down to two truths.

The most relevant is that Newcastle weren’t going to sanction a sale without an adequate replacement. They have so far failed to do that, having seen at least four primary targets turn them down.

As the end of the window gets closer, and the quality of viable alternatives decreases, Isak has clearly started to agitate. Hence the silence being broken on Tuesday.

And yet it was through those very words that Isak may have brought all this down to the other crucial truth in any such saga.

There is a delicate balance of power to such situations. While the window is open, the player has most of the leverage, especially since clubs generally don’t want to keep someone who isn’t fully committed. It becomes a corrosive problem – “stink the place out”, in the sport’s language – and you can just go about other business.

Once the window closes, however, the club has that leverage. The player has nowhere to go and obviously won’t want to sit on the bench, especially in a World Cup year.

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Isak has been ruthless for Newcastle (PA)

Isak may have actually accelerated this process, and closed his own window.

As one industry figure with knowledge of the situation says, “once players start putting out statements, that’s when it gets messy”.

It’s all the more complicated due to the higher-level dimension of this story.

Newcastle were initially going to be realistic and pragmatic about this. Now, Isak has played on emotions, and they are the emotions of one of the most powerful entities on earth.

The Public Investment Fund is the sovereign wealth fund of an autocracy, Saudi Arabia.

What’s more, if Newcastle were purchased to be a vehicle for political projection, they are now going to project strength.

Through that, there are echoes of arguably the only modern saga to go to worse levels than this. In 2011, Carlos Tevez decamped to Argentina, while complaining that Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had treated him “like a dog”.

Since City’s ownership was a senior royal, however, they didn’t have to think like a normal club. Chair Khaldoon al Mubarak, one of the most powerful figures in the UAE, just insisted he wasn’t going. That wasn’t going to get done to City.

Newcastle’s stance is now the same. Isak isn’t going.

The saga has led to a lot of other discussions, like whether the player has been badly advised, or even whether clubs like Liverpool should want a player who has agitated like the Swede.

The latter point is absurd. Isak is very good at scoring goals. When he’s switched on, he improves your team. It’s as simple as that.

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Isak at the club’s training centre (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

The question about his advice is more complicated. If Isak ultimately gets his move, no matter how it comes about, it will all have paid off.

It’s just hard to see how that might happen right now.

Back at the PFA awards on Tuesday night, industry figures were talking about whether Newcastle could be threatened with the Diarra judgment, or whether Fifa circular number 1917 could even come into play, where an International Transfer Certificate is requested for Isak and he temporarily goes abroad.

That could involve going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however, and maybe eventually a civil court.

A messy story would get even worse.

Except, now, Newcastle are insistent it’s much simpler. This isn’t going anywhere, because Isak isn’t going anywhere.

That might yet be the final say for this window.