The battle was officially launched between Newcastle and Liverpool about Alexander Isak, with a first stratospheric offer refused by the Magpies, who have no desire to lose their providential scorer, the man on whom they were planning their greatest hopes. But now, Newcastle is obliged to admit, with difficulty, that the Swedish striker is forcing to change stable, since he even left to train alone on the side of his former club, Real Sociedad. The pill is struggling to pass for a club that highlighted its family side, in the locker room, despite its wealthy owner. This is also why some players badly digest the turn taken by events.
The other reason for the current annoyance of management is the mismanagement of the Isak file, certainly still linked until 2028, which should have repelled any initial idea. But last summer, when the player hoped for a revaluation, the management of the time, of which Paul Mitchell, decided not to follow up, supported on this contract still quite long and above all cooled to the idea of putting himself in the red towards the PSR (the profit and Sustainability Rules, the English financial fair). An error, depending on the gaze today on the file.
Failures since the start of the summer transfer window
Newcastle is all the more scalded since it has so far failed to recruit a quality center. Because the basic plan was to recruit an additional attacker, to support Isak, before succeeding him in the medium term, in a year or two. The first two tracks, Liam Delap and João Pedro, went to Chelsea, while Hugo Ekitike was shipped by Liverpool. Result, they find themselves the beak in the water, and with the prospect of Isak's departure, must be two scorers after failing to recruit only one …
Positive point, they should benefit from abundant liquidity by selling Isak, since they claim € 172 million to sell it. Which would make it the 3rd biggest sale in the history of football, behind Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. This would offer a large bowl of fresh air to managers regarding the PSR, which takes into account the last 3 years in the calculation of the authorized deficit. The 2021-2022 season, where Newcastle posted more than € 80 million in losses, will no longer be recorded, and the sale of Isak would make the club accounts switch to green, allowing them to spend more widely.
It remains to be seen in what way, since in recent years have proven that a club making a large sale had no guarantee of finding his happiness in stride. We think of FC Barcelona, who had tried to replace Neymar with Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho for a very relative success. Above all, we will have to find the right profiles, while the names of Benjamin Sesko and Morgan Rogers regularly return to the English columns. But then again, competition lurks, and Newcastle has experienced it bitter in recent weeks, it is not always the destination favored by players …
