Eddie Howe spoke proudly and decisively on the current Alexander Isak situation before the team returned to England from the Far East earlier in the week.
The Head Coach told the world last Sunday that you need to ‘earn the right’ to train as normal with your teammates at Newcastle United.
On Wednesday, Howe followed through, showing his words were not empty, as Isak arrived at the club’s Benton training ground, alone, at 16:00 after the rest of the squad had trained and enjoyed a ‘team bonding and family day’ together.
The manager has been true to his word and at this point, it seems the Swede is out in the cold at United, and from the outside looking in it looks brutal, banishing potentially your best player on the eve of a crucial new season, but it was an example Howe had to make; sending Isak a strong message: that you can’t just ditch your teammates in training, not turn up to a pre-season tour you’re contracted to go on and a huge commercial trip for your club, then expect to come in when it suits you.
Talks took place between the manager and player with reports of Howe leaving after around 45 mins before Isak then trained alone. Oh, to have been a fly-on-the-wall in that room. I would expect Eddie to have reminded Isak about the employer/employee relationship (without completely shutting the door), despite as we all know, football being a vastly different business than the usual.
A Mexican Standoff?
It appears that this could be the start of a situation where no party can achieve a reasonable victory, especially during this transfer window. It’s unconscionable that Newcastle let Isak leave without a replacement, and the club appears to be really struggling to get a replacement in (of the correct quality/potential ability). And I certainly wouldn’t sell Isak to Liverpool before we play them in early August – that is the definition of insanity! (I wouldn’t sell him to them full stop but…)
From Isak’s point of view, he wants to explore his options, but he’s gone about it in completely the wrong manner and hasn’t bought himself any goodwill and burning bridges, seemingly overnight, with some fans. If he’d trained and gone on the club tour AND expressed a desire to leave, I am sure things would be different. There is a way to act, and Isak has either been poorly advised or he is a hell of an actor, as thousands of fans never saw this coming from the player across his hundreds of club media appearances.
Message sent; what next?
Having been turned down by seemingly all our top striker targets, I’m not sure there’s anywhere else for United to turn (and Nicholas Jackson, ain’t it). If the transfer window were to shut tomorrow, Isak would have to be reintegrated because we cannot go until January with Will Osula, Anthony Gordon, and Sean Neave as our striking options; it would be season suicide.
I can’t be the only one who feels this whole situation is a little sad just a few short months on from the Carabao Cup final? How we got here; whether it’s through broken promises to the player, the club shambles at board level, a player wanting to win things ‘unattainable at United’, having his ‘head turned’, or he’s poorly advised or, as is likely, a combination of all those things, it’s just gutting as it didn’t need to be this way.
Howe had to be strong; he’s put down a marker and acted like a manager should, but he knows he needs to leave the door open for reconciliation, as there is every chance, with it less than a fortnight away, we go into the new season with Isak as our main striker.