Time to forgive Alexander Isak | OneFootball

As the comedown continues from Monday night’s heartbreaking 3-2 defeat against Liverpool, the common feeling radiating from most Newcastle United fans continues to be pride, encouragement, but also frustration.

Frustration because although an inspired Newcastle United created chance after chance in that first half, there was a glaring, Alexander Isak shaped hole up front, as Gordon, who, despite putting in a colossal shift, struggled to make his presence in the box known before being sent off.

In my view, if Alexander Isak played for 90 minutes, we would’ve easily won that game, not just avoided defeat. There were at least three moments in the opening 30 minutes where I, and I think most of us thought, ‘if Isak was in that position, it’s in.’

Despite the media hype about the forward and ‘Free Isak’ comments from rival fans, it’s looking increasingly likely that he’ll have to stay until at least January.

The unanimous verdict from journalists is that the meeting that took place on Monday in the Swede’s home with Jamie Reuben and Jacobo Solis was unsuccessful.

But does this really mean anything?

Nobody has come close to the club’s £150m price tag and we currently can’t even sign a replacement for Callum Wilson, never mind Alexander Isak. Newcastle United have been rejected by several of our targets, whilst Brentford and Wolves have both rejected two Newcastle bids each for Wissa and Strand Larsen.

The club have made clear in several statements now that they want to keep Alexander Isak and with less than a week to go with no replacement in sight, that’s likely the only viewpoint that matters.

I’ve seen some Newcastle United fans who are either worried that he’ll sit out for the whole season, or feel that he shouldn’t be forgiven, or ever play for the club again. I saw a video of one group of fans claiming he’s a “dead man walking”, I think all of those viewpoints are far too dramatic.

If history is anything to go by, this is just part and parcel of having great players.

After years of having mostly average or sub-par players in the Mike Ashley years, we haven’t had to deal with this, but when the big(ger) boys come knocking, the player often wants to go. If the club tries to stop them, the player and their agent will force the move. Like what happened with Raheem Sterling in 2015.

But other times it doesn’t happen, and when that window shuts, they come back and play. Sometimes for several more years.

This exact scenario famously happened to Luis Suarez in 2013, who was forced to stay at Liverpool after Arsenal infamously triggered his release clause by bidding £40,000,001 for the Uruguayan, who even publicly pleaded with the club to ‘honour their agreement’ to let him leave. But they didn’t, and he went on to score 31 goals that season, almost winning the league in the process, before leaving for Barcelona the following summer.

Other similar cases include Berahino in 2015 (who even took to Twitter to announce that he ‘will never play for Jeremy Peace’), Zaha in 2019, Carlos Tevez in 2011/12, Modric in 2011, Ronaldo in 2008 (who referred to himself as a ‘slave’ in an interview) among a few more I’m missing in the Premier League era. All of whom came back to play for at least another year. We’re not special in this regard and Alexander Isak isn’t a uniquely greedy or evil individual. I’d even argue it’s natural for a world class 25 year old to want to go and play for one of the best sides in the world.

However, let’s face it, Isak unlocks this Newcastle team’s potential. We all know it; our impressive performances against Aston Villa and Liverpool prove that the media is wrong about how supposedly awful our summer window has been. We’re clearly a brilliant side and all the signings look like great additions. A world class striker could easily take us into the top three.

I’m not completely excusing him, though. He deserves criticism and should have to work harder than ever to regain his spot, but IF he’s still a Newcastle United player on September 2nd, we need to get behind him.

Obviously, it’s never going to be the same as before, and he’ll probably be leaving for a lot less next year, but the quality and depth in the squad means that this season has potential to be one of the greats.

Why scupper that over a failed transfer saga? No other club does when it’s their player, so why should we?