Ben Foster has wildly claimed that Alexander Isak should hold a press conference and declare his desire to leave Newcastle United.
“If you want to go, you need to put a press statement out saying ‘I Alexander Isak want to leave the football club because I want to leave to a Premier League winning team,’” Foster said on the Fozcast.
“If you do that, Newcastle should say ‘cool, we’ll put our press conference out saying Alexander wants to go, we want £150m, once that has been met, we’ll let him go’.”
However, after a £110m bid was rejected at the end of July, the Newcastle narrative seems to be changing as their stance softens.
It would now appear that Liverpool will soon submit a second, higher bid with encouragement from the Tyneside club.
It remains to be seen where the middle ground will be found on the £110m Liverpool offered and the £150m that Newcastle sources suggest is the only price the PIF-backed outfit will relinquish Isak at.
Isak earns £120,000 per week, as per Capology, but wants a pay increase in addition to the opportunity to challenge for the Premier League and Champions League.
Why a transfer request or press conference is not likely or necessary based on recent reports
Not only will Isak not want to entirely burn his relationship with the fans and club, but it’s not necessary for him to do so in order to join Liverpool – that may soon be a formality.
According to a report from Craig Hope on Sunday, that there is a realisation at Newcastle United that “bridges are starting to burn” with potentially no way back for the striker at St. James’ Park.
David Ornstein said on the Athletic FC Podcast: “I don’t think they are stupid,” while discussing the emerging concession that selling Isak is now the healthiest thing for the club and squad.
On Wednesday, Lee Ryder – a Newcastle-based journalist for the Chronicle – reported that Liverpool “have had every encouragement” to put in another bid for Isak.
Yesterday, Paul Joyce dropped a massive line, saying that the “next instalment” of the Alexander Isak to Liverpool saga “cannot be far away.”
Despite how unimaginable this transfer was three months ago, Liverpool have since opened the floodgates, spending heavily on Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike.
A lot of money has also been spent recruiting Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giorgi Mamardashvili.
One thing is clear: Liverpool are capitalising on potentially the final two years of having Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk with the view to usher in a new era of dominance.