Maybe, just maybe, it’s best to let Alexander Isak go | OneFootball

I didn’t want to do this, adding more Alexander Isak discourse to a summer that has been over-bloated by it, but there’s time to fill.

I’m in an advanced state of agitated after the clumpy slippers at Sky made their spiteful decision to switch the Liverpool game to the Monday night, as I will be looking for a way to watch it in Disneyland Paris. I’ve checked and double-checked with the kids and they definitely really want to go.

Either way, I’d have managed a Saturday kick off, a Sunday might have needed a negotiation summit with Mrs S, but Monday was just never going to happen.

It’s annoying for me personally but it has the makings of a canny day out for some, as a full bank holiday can be observed in true Geordie fashion before rocking up for a rip-roaring atmosphere against the partial architects of this summer’s most drawn-out saga.

There’s also the factor of a full weekend of the narrative being driven by more Isak blether, including the postulations that his move to Merseyside will happen once this fixture is out of the way. I’ve said before that it would be rank lunacy to allow a consistent 20-goal striker to leave when you have any ambition for doing everything. But then this week happened and maybe, just maybe, it’s best to let Alexander Isak go.

There’s a few things that have happened this week that have got me thinking. Unusually, I’m going to start in the middle, with Newcastle United’s statement responding to Isak’s petulant Instagram rant.

Apparently the PIF themselves orchestrated this statement, made it clear in no uncertain terms that Isak wouldn’t be going anywhere. This made absolute sense, as attempts at sourcing a Champions League standard replacement had been repeatedly gazumped (including by Liverpool themselves in the case of Ekitike) and actually NUFC hadn’t managed to even replace Callum Wilson yet. Alexander Isak is well tied down by his current contract and United weren’t about to allow such a self-inflicted wound. This all may be academic anyway, as Liverpool weren’t looking keen to meet the actual asking price, the third requisite of this whole process.

My thoughts then were that Alexander Isak might just have to lump it. Club holds all the cards mate, work on your apology and find yourself a scapegoat. Then came Eddie Howe’s press conference on Friday, where he as good as admitted that the rumoured conversation had indeed happened where, two weeks before the end of last season, Isak had advised him of a desire to move on.

Ironically, Isak has a similar gripe with the club as the fans he has alienated, in that the snail’s pace of doing anything overseen by the largely vacant board has allowed a situation to develop that there was ample time to avoid. But like I said, tough mate, you’ve a contract to observe. Then I got to thinking, two weeks before the end of the season did you say?

If you cast your mind back to two weeks before the end of the season, Newcastle were third in the table having just beaten Chelsea at SJP.

There was a three point cushion to sixth place and the Champions League qualification looked all but done. If it was the aftermath of this game that Isak dropped his little bombshell, it was extremely unhelpful. This was surely a factor in the Swede’s absence at Arsenal the following weekend, when United had many first half chances but converted none, as well as his pedestrian showing in the final day disappointment against Everton.

Then I got thinking again. Alexander Isak made one of the all-time contributions to Newcastle’s history with his cup winning goal, but think about what happened after that. In the first game after Wembley he scored another crucial goal in a 2-1 win, converting Murphy’s cross to open the scoring against Brentford. After that, we had nine games and Isak contributed three goals, which is a respectable return until you consider that two of them were penalties and the other was when Palace were 4-0 down and beaten. Add in the fact he was pretty much barely running in games and it was a relatively anonymous final quarter of the season.

This was of course put down to fatigue and injury after a long tough campaign. This is entirely feasible as Isak has been a regular sufferer of soft tissue problems to the extent I haven’t even dismissed the story of his phantom pre-season “thigh strain” as being totally untrue. However, any fitness struggles were at least in addition to issues in the player’s headspace, given what has come out in recent days.

If you look back even further, I wonder if this was the only occurrence. In Newcastle’s opening ten games of last season, Isak scored once, the winner against Spurs. The fact that he missed a couple of games there due to a broken toe was a contributing factor, but was the fact he was coming off the back of Paul Mitchell’s destructive kibosh of a new contract also affecting performance? Isak scored at Stamford Bridge at the end of October to kickstart a run of 23 goals in 27 games, including some spectacular efforts and some utterly critical ones, particularly towards delivering that elusive trophy.

I wonder how much of this was Alexander Isak getting his headspace right, resigning himself to committing to a great season with Newcastle United which could then influence a big move? If this is the case then there’s a very real concern that, should he be retained with the wrong head space altogether, we might see the Isak of the opening/closing quarter of the season who, let’s be honest, doesn’t come over as a £150m player.

The next move here goes one of two ways: either Newcastle get at least one striker in, most likely the Wilson replacement, and gamble on making do with him plus our existing attack, allowing Isak to leave for a hefty price that can be reinvested in the coming windows once we have an executive structure in place to do the deals and time to assess new targets. This is ludicrous, as all should have been done in advance of this window, but it’s where we’re at, not least because of that series of gazumps and knockbacks.

The second way is that Eddie Howe needs to somehow try and turn Alexander Isak around if he’s still here come September, to get the sort of season that will maintain his price and the interest of suitors, and more importantly allow NUFC to continue moving forward. Whatever was said in that full squad inquest after Brentford away last year needs to be turned up to eleven, and given the tone of Isak’s little statement, I wonder if this is even beyond Eddie’s considerable powers.

I’m sure we’re all looking forward to September when either way this is all resolved, even if it’s only temporarily. Meanwhile, I’m away to distract myself at the House of Mouse, does anyone know where you can see Premier League games there?