The stark differences between the Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa situations | OneFootball

Not content with pushing for the purchase of Alexander Isak on the cheap, the Liverpool PR machinery (which runs from fan sites all the way up to the official broadcaster apparently – so much for the impartiality of the Premier League!) has also constantly been trying to equate the Isak & Yoane Wissa situations.

While it’s true both strikers have gone on strike at their respective clubs and both situations are connected to Newcastle United, the commonality ends there.

Here’s a point by point detailing of why the two can’t be equated.

1) Liverpool’s media-fuelled Isak chase began at least in Dec 2024. The earliest recorded (at some point I began to ‘collect’ a record of all the nonsense trying to push Isak out the door) Arsenal transfer ‘articles’ began in Nov’24. The earliest I recorded of a Liverpool one was from the last New Year’s Eve (there may have been others earlier) from a website called Teamtalk.

Since then it was a near daily set of ‘articles’ through the January 2025 transfer window fishing/prospecting at the chance of getting him on the cheap (ironically the amount bandied about back then that they were willing to offer was £115m – £5m above what they actually offered three weeks back) then ebbed and restarted in the fortnight leading up to the League Cup final against us.

On the other hand, Newcastle United were not even actively looking at Yoane Wissa until late July 2025, after having missed their main targets and looking for alternatives. It wasn’t that Newcastle didn’t want/value him, they were looking for younger options first, who could potentially spend many more years at the club. Newcastle didn’t use the media to undermine him, instead went and straight away placed an official bid with Brentford.

2) Isak made two important statements in the Feb-Mar 2025 period during interviews:

A – When asked regarding a new contract he said that would be negotiated in the summer. Not staying silent or avoiding the question but saying it’d happen over the summer. He had 3.5 years left on his contract at that point.

B – He said that he could see Newcastle winning trophies and him being able to realise his dreams at the club, so he saw no need to move. This was immediately before the League Cup final and he gave a follow on statement after the win, stating that this proved what he said and was the first of many to come.

Thus he didn’t feel the need to move to a so called “bigger club” because he saw the pathway to winning the same trophies at Newcastle (even if it might take a bit more time and the numbers might be fewer). This is very important to establish, as it proves that his saga is about being able to earn much more money.

Yoane Wissa on the other hand had 1 year left on his contract in the summer with the option of another year’s extension. He’d already refused Brentford’s offer of negotiating a new contract.

3) Wissa said when going on strike end of July, that he had a verbal agreement with club officials that if a bid of £26m arrived for him and he wished to leave, the club would sanction it. Brentford officials have not denied this. Newcastle, understanding from rejected bids between £20-25m from Forest and Spurs that Brentford were looking for something extra, bid £26m + £4m in add-ons and it was rejected. Brentford then reportedly saying that they valued him at £40m then supposedly softening their stance and saying they’d let him go once they signed a replacement attacker.

Upon this communication, Wissa WENT BACK TO TRAINING with the team. After this weekend’s games when Brentford moved the goalposts and repriced him at £50-60m (when Newcastle supposedly verbally communicated a higher bid expected to be in the range of £30m + £5m in add-ons) he’s again supposedly gone on strike. But before that he REJOINED training and made himself available for the first game, though his manager decided against using him.

There was no understanding with Alexander Isak or a clause in his contract regarding a sale price and the media itself reported that Newcastle valued him at £150m or more.

NO club, including Liverpool, has submitted a bid anywhere even close to £150m. Given the prices being demanded for players in the current window, this constituted a below market value price. How can Newcastle United consider a sale if even that stated price is not being met? Yet Isak went on a self-imposed strike demanding he be allowed to move, purportedly at whatever price Liverpool offered and has held on to his stance even though no remotely decent bid has come in for him.

The two situations can only be equated if Newcastle bid £10m for Yoane Wissa and he stayed on strike asking Brentford to let him go at whatever price. Instead, Newcastle have been upping their bid for Wissa each time (latest one on Wednesday 20 August is £40m) even though they’re limited by PSR and the fact that he’ll have no resale value and they’d need to replace him within a few years, unlike Isak who has a good 7-8 years of playing at the top level left at 25 years.

4) Wissa has stated he saw this as his last chance to play in the Champions League and he saw Newcastle as the right club to do that with. His representatives communicated that wages and terms wouldn’t be an issue whatever was offered. His reasons for the move are footballing.

Alexander Isak, as shown above, was clear that footballing targets would be achieved, even at Newcastle. He wanted to be paid what he was worth in today’s market regardless of what the club could currently afford under PSR and has clearly pushed for a move due to the reported £300k/wk that Liverpool are supposedly offering him.

Given that Newcastle were reported to be willing to offer £200k/wk salary – making him the club’s highest earner by far – just like when he first arrived, he felt the £100k/wk gap too big to be bridged (Does beg the philosophical question of what can a person do on £300k/wk that he can’t on £200k/wk but that’s a wider discussion on the world of football players not living in the same world as the rest of us) in negotiations.

Everything the manager/club/team had done to propel him to being the best all-round striker in the world was not a consideration for him anymore. Neither was the effect his actions would have on the team which he’d helped become a regular top five/Champions League outfit.

Neither was the fact that at Liverpool his minutes/status (not top dog but below Salah/Van Dijk) and potentially goals (given that he wouldn’t be on penalties) wouldn’t match that at Newcastle. He’s also been careful to not put in a transfer request during the last five weeks he’s been on strike, which would reduce his money if a move happens, though that could change over the next 10 days.

A few general points without comparison of the two transfer sagas:

1) Newcastle haven’t put a media circus in place about how Brentford are holding them and Wissa to ransom, nor have they got Wissa to make disparaging statements regarding his current club to make the move happen. They’d be right if they did (on the ransom part), unlike Liverpool over Isak, but they’re just trying to make a deal happen even at an inflated price instead of getting the player for half-price (Liverpool: Wirtz £119m, Caicedo £105m bid, Coutinho £142m but Isak £110m).

2) Liverpool wouldn’t have stepped in to steal Ekitike (with a similar profile to Isak albeit few years behind in terms of achievement/performance) with a higher bid after Newcastle’s bid for him was accepted by Frankfurt (I do believe football’s legal rules are wrong if after a bid’s ACCEPTED by the seller (and the player – on wages) or their stated price is matched, someone else can come and match/increase it and the buyer is changed by the seller. This wouldn’t happen in any other product/service market if they believed at that moment that Isak, was going to come to Liverpool. Yet both before and after that deal, they kept pushing Isak to revolt against Newcastle. The objectives of this can only be to damage Newcastle’s preparation and/or get Isak on the cheap.

3) Isak has suddenly chosen to speak up officially for the first time, a few days before Newcastle host Liverpool. was he pushed to do it in so timely a fashion to try to damage Newcastle’s preparation for the fixture? Has the player/his agent been promised bonuses out of the money Liverpool might save on his transfer? I suspect a second incoming low bid around £120m+ add-ons is incoming this week and this statement was to make Newcastle give in (I’d propose a counter offer of £120m + Mamardashvili + Ekitike on loan with a forced buy at end of season for £70m saving both our former targets from 2+ years mostly on the bench).

4) Wissa’s price would drop drastically if he ran down his contract next summer and left on a free transfer/small fee in case of one year extension. But Newcastle might not be in Champions League next season and whoever is may not fancy taking on a near 30 year old. Isak on the other hand would still be <27 years with two years left on his contract and his transfer price would stay the same unless he played poorly for a long time, in which case he’d lose his Sweden spot and not even get similar wage offers that he’s getting now, if at all any of the clubs able to afford it came in for him then.

5) Lastly, I want to put this fake ghost of a “contract promise” to rest.

Lets say Amanda Staveley DID tell him verbally that a new contract would be done during last summer. If right now Newcastle were willing to give him £200k/wk, at that point, before his best ever season, with PSR clouds hanging over Newcastle, it’s doubtful the contract would’ve been higher than £165k/wk or so – putting him in line with Bruno Guimaraes (around whom the speculation circus ran last May-July) as the best paid player at the club.

Would that have made him happy enough to not want a move now? Would he not still have plumped for the £300k/wk thrown his way by Liverpool?

The gap between offered NUFC wages and Liverpool wages would’ve been even greater than now. There would’ve been some other excuse thrown our way in that situation.

Finally, NO ONE ever mentions an exact wage amount when mentioning contract discussions in passing. Exact amounts ONLY get discussed when you actually sit down to negotiate. Thus, even if Amanda did say there’d be a new contract it was without reference to how much/when/how long.

In fact he could’ve taken a new contract this summer and forced the inclusion of a buyout clause and likely left a hero next summer while fulfilling his greed by getting an even bigger payout from a Liverpool/Real Madrid/Chelsea. And why isn’t he telling Liverpool to stump up the cash and get him released from this ‘hell’ which is still paying him £140k/wk (incl bonuses) while he chooses to do the club wrong every which way?

They may not admit it, but even the most blind and rabid Liverpool fan would know exactly what’s happening. Just like Sky Sports, BBC, ex-player supposed pundits, the so called football news sites with their alignment to the Super League clubs and everyone else does.

Very few if any have placed ANY guilt at Liverpool’s door when talking in public (it’s Isak and his agent gone rogue). Some have even made cartoons out of how Newcastle’s owners’ Saudi club paid big money for Nunez to clear the decks for Isak’s purchase while ignoring everything Liverpool’s done.

This saga is even more conclusive proof of what these six clubs are and how Premier League football stopped being a sport long back because sport requires a level and fair playing field for all participants and the gentrified few will constantly play dirty, knowing no one with a big enough voice will call them out and risk their own employment/fame.

There’s a reason Leicester’s triumph in 2016 is the only time this century that the PL title wasn’t won by five of the ‘big six’ and the PL office is only too happy to ensure it stays that way till the century ends.

Imagine taking part in a ‘sporting’ competition, knowing however much you ever improve, whatever your performance, you just won’t ever be allowed to win it.

Maybe if the fans of the Other 14 just stopped coming to stadiums it might force the Premier League office to change itself? Given where ticket prices are going, it may actually happen.