If Alexander Isak leaves Newcastle United, one thing that needs to be understood, is that there’s no “replacing” him through a like-for-like swap.
There is no striker currently on the market who comes remotely close to him in terms of overall ability.
The club will have to replace him through multiple players, i.e. replacing in the aggregate.
Basically, we need to sign two strikers, who can split minutes (and therefore we benefit from freshness, in a way we didn’t with Isak), who can replace parts of Isak’s skillset individually.
And therefore the idea, is that over a season, they can cumulatively come up with a similar amount of goal contributions, overall technical contributions, to Isak.
The idea of Jackson, Watkins, Strand Larsen,, Muniz, Wissa – whoever it is – “replacing” Isak is a bit naive and misinformed. It’ll be a combination of players, compiled by the total budget we’ll potentially raise from selling Isak, that’ll come together to replace him in the aggregate.
It’s an entirely different concept to any of these players being a straight swap.
The reality is that all of these players we’re linked are levels below Isak – in fact, they’re all closer to Callum Wilson, or even Osula, than they are to Isak. The Swede is just \*that\* good.
However, if you take two of these players, have them share minutes, and have them solve different tactical solutions, Newcastle could easily find themselves no worse off.