Former Newcastle United boss Sam Allardyce has weighed in on Alexander Isak’s eagerness to leave this summer.
While Malick Thiaw was announced as a Newcastle United player on Tuesday evening, the news of the day was dominated by reports that Alexander Isak is refusing to be reintegrated into the first team.
The 25-year-old has confirmed his intent to explore his options away from Newcastle after serious interest from Premier League Champions Liverpool. Newcastle fans are happy for Isak to be sold this summer, with many struggling to see how he can be moulded back into the first-team picture after all of the issues over the last two months.
Reports stated that Isak told Eddie Howe he wanted to leave Newcastle in May, just a couple of weeks before Champions League football was secured.
The Sweden international has not been seen playing for the Magpies since the final day of the Premier League season in May, and with the saga showing no sign of ending, Sam Allardyce has given PIF some advice on how to deal with the player.
Alexander Isak celebrates after scoring in a Premier League game between Newcastle United and Arsenal.
Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images
Sam Allardyce tells Newcastle United to sell Alexander Isak
Before the window opened, Allardyce believed that PIF were under pressure to deliver new signings for Howe. After a slow start, those signings are coming, with a fee agreed for Jacob Ramsey to join Newcastle.
However, very few pundits could have predicted how bad the Isak situation has become. With the player seemingly sticking to his guns, Allardyce thinks it is time for Newcastle to bite the bullet.
“Sell him. I’d sell him, I’d go for the best price,” he said on TalkSPORT.
MORE NEWCASTLE STORIES
“Once a player makes his mind up as determined as he is, and because there’s nothing else you can do role-wise. I suppose if he stays away, the only thing you do is don’t pay him, but that obviously becomes a situation where nobody wins.
“Unless the board are strong enough to say ‘let him rot, Sam, we’ll go and buy you another centre-forward’, which is the best way to deal with it in my opinion. Somebody has to stand up to a player that’s gonna start doing this on a regular basis, where they’ve got contracts, in Isak’s case, a particularly long contract of three years, then the owners are obviously looking not to devalue him.
“But at the end of the day if you want to stand up and be counted and put a shock across the Premier League saying ‘you can’t treat your clubs like this after you’ve dedicated yourself to a contract'”.
Newcastle United will start the Premier League season without Alexander Isak
Having missed all of pre-season, it is clear that Isak will not be part of the first-team picture for a while.
Even if he is reintegrated into the squad, he will need time to get back up to speed with Howe’s training methods and any new tactics set out by the 47-year-old.
Newcastle take on Aston Villa in their first game of the Premier League season on Saturday, and Isak will likely be nowhere to be seen. The 25-year-old is currently training away from his teammates and has not given Howe any sign that he is ready to be involved against Villa.
The Toon boss will now look to either William Osula or Anthony Gordon to lead the line at Villa Park, but it is clear that a new quality striker must be brought in whether Isak stays or leaves this summer.