There’s a theory the conversation changes if Liverpool offer £150m, but even then Newcastle don’t have to blink
In conversations with a Premier League executive this summer, talk turned to Alexander Isak and what might happen if Liverpool or Arsenal tested Newcastle’s resolve with a big enough bid.
My contention was that surely – at some point, given the modern football food chain and profitability and sustainability red tape – Newcastle have to give serious thought to selling.
The response was telling: “Don’t worry about any of that external stuff, it doesn’t matter. If Newcastle don’t want to sell, they don’t sell him.”
And it really is as simple as that. Because for all the gnawed fingernails on Tyneside over the last 24 hours the top and bottom of it is that Liverpool’s bold intervention clears all the smoke and mirrors and drags us to the crunch of the matter: what is the scope of PIF’s ambition for Newcastle?
So far the message communicated from the top is a clear one: Isak is not for sale.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 16: Alexander Isak of Newcastle United shoots to score the second goal during the Carabao Cup Final between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium on March 16, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Alexander Isak scored against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final (Photo: Getty)
That has been reaffirmed in recent hours and delivered, in one form or another, to intermediaries posing the question on Liverpool’s behalf. Eddie Howe, who is a key part of the interim transfer team, is driving that same message.
But let’s be realistic, there is no smoke without fire here. Prominent Liverpool sources believe there is “something there”.
No doubt someone – and The i Paper understands there are some big middle men looking to get a slice of any prospective Isak record sale action – is on manoeuvres when it comes to the striker. There is agitation around the forward.
How Newcastle deal with that at such a critical juncture in the project will tell us so much.
Around £120-130m is the mooted price by those of a Liverpool persuasion, but that is so far removed from a realistic valuation of Isak in a transfer market where proven Premier League experience is really, really expensive.
Newcastle might have to pay £80m to get Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt – are we really saying Isak’s two seasons scoring 20-plus top-flight goals, impacting games at the highest level and being the best forward in the world is really only worth £40m more? Get real.
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There’s a theory that the conversation changes if £150m becomes the number. But even then Newcastle don’t have to blink.
What a message that would send: we are ambitious enough to knock back the Premier League champions because we have ambitions of our own to compete for the biggest honours.
On the flip side, selling would require the most almighty PR mop-up from Newcastle – impacting the club from top to bottom.
Next year, when he has two years left on his deal and value is probably as high as it’ll go, there will be more pressure to consider offers. But this year? They will never be in a better position to hold their nerve.
Could Isak go on strike? Those who know him suggest that isn’t in his nature. He’s laidback, grateful to Howe for the work he’s done improving him.
No-one knows what a combination of voices in your ear, big contract promises and the prospect of joining the champions will do to a young man but he has a contract.
Newcastle don’t need to be pushed around by middle men and, let’s not forget, have a Champions League campaign of their own to embark on. This is not Mike Ashley’s Newcastle, hooked on “getting by” and surviving.
What happens next is really up to Newcastle. The i Paper understands these are critical hours in the chase of Ekitike with a second bid being prepared.
But they’re £10m short on valuation and the prospect of Liverpool joining that bidding war – even though some Reds sources suggest they’re lukewarm on the 23-year-old – will not hasten Eintracht Frankfurt’s willingness to do a deal.
Other targets remain in play for Newcastle’s striker vacancy and Howe, along with nephew Andy, is right at the heart of those efforts.
Boil it down and here it is: PIF’s chance to prove that Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s pledge that he wants Newcastle to be “number one”, that his exhortation after the Carabao Cup win that this was the first trophy “of many” wasn’t hot air.
Because for all the many millions they have invested to return Newcastle to relevance, it would be rebuffing interest in Isak this summer that would be the biggest signal that they are not just here to make up the numbers. It’s going to be fascinating watching it play out.