Alexander Isak message to Newcastle team-mates revealed after Liverpool transfer saga | OneFootball

No animosity between new Reds striker and former team-mates despite bitter exit from St James’ Park

Dan Burn has revealed the message that Alexander Isak sent to his Newcastle team-mates hours before completing a £125million deadline day move to Liverpool.

The Swedish striker effectively went on strike in an effort to force through the move and has yet to play this season.

Yoane Wissa, who joined Newcastle for £55m after Isak’s sale, acted in a similar way as he pushed to leave Brentford.

Burn, who is set to start for England against Andorra on Saturday, described Isak as one of the world’s top-three strikers and hailed Newcastle for holding firm and recouping a British-record fee for his sale.

“Alex is probably one of the best three strikers in the world at the moment, and as a Newcastle fan personally, obviously, you'd love him to want to stay,” Burn said.

“But I know that's football, and there's players who've come and gone from Newcastle before.

“Alex is my mate at the end of the day, so it was a tough situation. But I'm glad that we're getting a good return on a player that we've had, and he's getting the move that he wanted.”

Burn added: “He put a message in the chat just saying that he was leaving, and ‘thanks for the memories’, all that sort of stuff. The lads replied. But as I said, I think Alex is getting what he wants, and now we've just got to focus and do what we can with the players that we've got.

“It brought us closer, really. I think it can be frustrating at times, because everything was so positive last season, so that took a little bit of a shine off.

“But I'm not silly. I've been around football a long time now, and people have short careers, and they want to max out absolutely everything they can, so there's no hard feelings from me.

“As I said, I think we've got two good players in that position now, which will hopefully fill up the goals that we’ve lost.”