For a long time in football, public enemy no.1 in the transfer market was Mino Raiola.
Having represented some of the sport’s biggest names, he had been labelled ‘greedy’ and a tough negotiator who you could say helped inflate the entire market with his efforts.
And in Newcastle in 2025, a different agent is well on his way to becoming the fans’ most reviled figure involved with the club: Alexander Isak’s agent Vlado Lemic.
The Serbian has caused quite the stir this summer, doing all he can to get Isak the ‘dream’ move to Liverpool which came from seemingly nowhere earlier in the window. Something on which former club coach and assistant Dean Saunders had a lot to say…
Speaking on a recent podcast, Dean Saunders believes that agents like Lemic only have their own interests in mind, and are harming not just their clients like Isak, but the sport as a whole.
His rant feels particularly relevant after the events that unfolded last night, which saw Isak release a poorly-advised statement that pushed a dangerous agenda regarding his bid to force a move due to his own selfish gain.
🗣 “There’s no way Isak is telling Eddie Howe, ‘I’m not playing for Newcastle again!’
Agents are running football!”#nufc pic.twitter.com/4vyucmQfTl
— NUFCEdge (@NUFCEdge) August 19, 2025
Saunders said: “Agents are running football in my opinion. The agents are in charge of what goes on.”
“There’s no way Alexander Isak is telling Eddie Howe ‘I’m not playing for Newcastle again.’ It’s his agent. He thinks ‘How can I get him out of there?’ ‘Who’s going to give me the most commission?’ ‘How can I get some commission from somewhere?’”
“He don’t care about Isak. He don’t care about Newcastle. He’s thinking how can I get £15m commission? Something silly like that. So they’ve got too much power and something’s got to be done about it.”
The great shift in Isak’s online activity and interviews, which showed him loving life on Tyneside with his friends and teammates, to his unhappiness at the club and subsequent strike hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans.
As things stand, Isak will be expected to return to training in early September after the transfer window has shut, with any departure looking less likely by the day.
But the 25-year-old will have to show from the very start that he deserves to be atoned and integrated back into the squad in the eyes of both Howe and his teammates.
Would a public apology perhaps be the best course of action then? An admission that he pushed too hard for the move and it greatly damaged the club’s pre-season efforts as well as our image in the transfer market? You’d hope so, although he did the exact opposite last night!
Lemic would also have to be given the sack by Isak, or we face another situation unfolding in January or next summer, which we simply cannot allow to happen: any Isak departure needs to be on our terms.
However, the worst case scenario would be Isak standing by his agent and doubling down on his desire to leave once again, as that could throw the following four months of the season into complete disarray unless a new striker can step into his big shoes.