There are some football fans for whom the football itself appears to be a sideshow. For them, the transfer window is the main event.
However, it is difficult to imagine many Newcastle United supporters are of that thinking.
This has been a gruelling summer at St James' Park despite its early promise after Newcastle scraped Champions League qualification on the final day of last season. Having not significantly added to the first team in two years, there was (and is) money to spend.
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Perhaps then Newcastle are just out of practice, for actually spending that money has proven more difficult than raising it.
Anthony Elanga joined from Nottingham Forest, while Aaron Ramsdale has been brought in on an initial loan, but those have notably been Newcastle's only two pursuits so far this summer in which they have not been competing with the Premier League's 'big six' or, in the case of Dean Huijsen, Real Madrid. Those clubs have made a mockery of the Magpies' efforts. And in Ramsdale’s case, he was very much a second-choice, with James Trafford having long been a target of Newcastle — he has re-joined Manchester City, instead.
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The latest setback has seen Manchester United, without Champions League football and supposedly without money to spend, seemingly beat Newcastle to the signing of Benjamin Sesko, who would have been a club-record arrival on Tyneside.
And very much in the foreground of these various disappointments looms large Alexander Isak, a player Newcastle were able to sign three years ago but who is now pushing hard to leave for Liverpool.
If the past two years have taught us anything, it is that Newcastle's off-the-record media briefings are not necessarily to be taken at face value. In June 2024, there were no clear indications of the imminent PSR danger that would ultimately unstable the entire club. In June 2025, the word was Isak was not for sale at any price.
And yet maybe he isn't. Liverpool's only bid to date was swiftly rejected and not improved.
Credit: Instagram - @alex_isak
The briefings that followed this time did not suggest a deal was impossible, of course. Instead, Newcastle would need two strikers and Liverpool's offer would have to increase significantly from £110million to close to £150m.
Perhaps that should indeed have been perceived as impossible.
Even if a £150m bid was to improbably arrive, that is the easy part in this equation. Newcastle have repeatedly fallen short in their pursuits of striker targets, and without a sporting director or a chief executive for the course of this transfer window, it is not clear exactly who is capable of doing these deals.
Eddie Howe is said to have a controlling say but has repeatedly described himself as being separate to the team working on transfers during pre-season, with Steve Nickson and Andy Howe heading up the recruitment side. Co-owner Jamie Reuben was credited with landing Elanga but then also prematurely credited with securing an agreement for Sesko that did not come to fruition.
Surely, eventually, Newcastle will get someone through the door, but it will not be Sesko and it will not be Hugo Ekitike, the two most obvious Isak replacements.
Credit: Instagram - @lfc
And yet in stealing Ekitike from under Newcastle's noses, Liverpool may have scuppered their own attempts to recruit their top target.
If Newcastle are this time as good as their word and refuse to sell Isak without first finding a suitable replacement, he will not leave this summer.
That will frustrate Liverpool and frustrate the player, but for Newcastle, it is actually a preferable outcome to bringing in Sesko or Ekitike at the expense of losing their star man. Although Isak will leave next year if he cannot secure his move before the end of this month, Newcastle should then be in a better position to put together a succession plan.
There certainly was not a plan this summer, when Ekitike was said to be a partner for Isak, while Sesko only became a leading target as the Swede edged towards the exit door. It is for that reason that reported claims from Isak's camp that a transfer this year was long forecast do not entirely add up. Newcastle's incompetence has been a theme of this window, but surely even they could not have been caught so on the hop had they known Isak's departure was a certainty.
It leaves the potential then for an unhappy marriage come September, yet Liverpool fans are deluding themselves if they believe the threat of that must force Newcastle to do business now. Reds supporters should know better than most that such situations are retrievable – particularly with the promise of a move down the line.
An Isak departure would leave a big void in Newcastle’s attack
We are only now reaching the point in August that Brendan Rodgers, back in 2013, told Luis Suarez to train on his own as he tried to force a move to Arsenal. Liverpool stood firm, Suarez stayed, played, nearly delivered the title, then left for a better move and a better fee the following year.
That was the same summer, too, Newcastle last dealt with a scenario such as this, similarly keeping Yohan Cabaye from a cut-price transfer to Arsenal. He, like Suarez, played the best football of his career before joining Paris Saint-Germain the following January.
Philippe Coutinho stuck around for half a season in 2017-18 and was similarly inspired, while Luka Modric in 2011 and Harry Kane in 2021 were denied moves by Tottenham, missed Premier League matches and returned to the fold as brilliant as ever.
Crucially, all five players listed there were eventually sold outside of the Premier League. That would undoubtedly be Newcastle's preference next summer, and perhaps, for example, Barcelona, who bought Suarez and Coutinho, will then be in a position to sign Isak as Robert Lewandowski's replacement.
That, from a Newcastle perspective, is clearly an optimistic outlook. Either way, the real cause for optimism will arrive when the rumour mill stops (or slows) at the start of next month.
With or without Isak – assuming some form of replacement would be brought in if he were to depart – Newcastle remain a very good team with a very good head coach.
Since Howe was appointed in November 2021, with his new side facing relegation, Newcastle have earned the fourth-most points in the division. Since the middle of last December, when Howe called an already unsettled Isak into line, along with similarly stuttering team-mates, Newcastle are second to Liverpool for points gained.
Newcastle will not win the transfer window, but then that achievement rarely spells success anyway. Once the distraction is out of the way, they should continue to win matches.
By Ben Spratt