Prior to Tuesday morning, there was still a strong amount of hope that Alexander Isak would play again for Newcastle United.
Today however, the mood has shifted dramatically, and the Swede has burned his bridges seemingly beyond repair.
Still dreaming of a summer move to Liverpool, Isak is reportedly adamant that he will never play for us again: the strongest sign yet that there is no chance of re-integrating him back into first team plays.
And we may not have to wait long for the next development in this unbearable saga, as a fresh bid for Isak could be right around the corner…
According to Fabrizio Romano, Liverpool will indeed send us another offer to sign Isak this summer, but on one key condition.
Writing on X, the journalist posted “Liverpool will bid again for Isak, as always planned since July…if/when Newcastle open doors to his exit. No changes.”
After an initial bid of around £110m was rejected earlier this month, we’ve been awaiting a follow up bid from Arne Slot’s side ever since, but they’re seemingly waiting for our ‘invitation’ to bid.
But as things stand, Isak remains the only ‘premium’ striker at the club, something which is unlikely to change even if we sign the excellent Yoane Wissa. One of the key conditions behind us being remotely willing to sell Isak is by having his replacement already ready and raring to go, particularly as we head into a long season with Champions League football included.
Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk commented on Sunday night after their Community Shield loss to Crystal Palace that “there’s always room for an attacker in order to strengthen us so let’s see what the window brings in terms of the balance of the team.”
And with Isak himself supposedly shutting down moves to anywhere else besides Liverpool, we hold all the cards in the situation – those being that Isak is contracted to us, and we know that Liverpool have the funds available to pay what we really want.
If Liverpool hadn’t made the move for Hugo Ekitike, it’s likely this entire situation could have been avoided, and Isak would most likely have already made the move to Merseyside due to Liverpool having an extra £70m in the bank and a spare striker slot in their squad.
But it seems that trying to compete with us in the transfer market has only emboldened our desire to keep Isak and avoid selling him to Liverpool at all costs. They took our no.1 replacement option without the foresight of what it would lead to, and now seemingly everyone else is suffering the consequences.