Alexander Isak has been on a one-man mission to leave Newcastle United over the past month.
It all started as he stayed at home for a 4-0 beating away to Celtic on 19th July and quickly escalated from that point, seeing him miss our entire pre-season trip to Asia, fly to Spain instead for his own personal fitness camp at former club Real Sociedad and receive no invite to the club’s ‘family day’, which was hosted at the Benton training base on his return.
Since then, he’s trained away from the first team squad, played no part in the Sela Cup weekend and declared himself unavailable for selection over the opening weekend of the new season, seeing Newcastle play without a recognised striker in the 0-0 draw at Aston Villa last Saturday.
But what now? Well, after a petulant [statement on Tuesday night](https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2025/08/19/alexander-isak-releases-statement-the-relationship-cant-continue/) saw the 25-year-old accuse Newcastle of “broken promises”, Isak was back training solo with his tail well and truly between his legs on Wednesday afternoon.
With all senior staff keeping their distance from the Swede, an Academy coach from the club’s Little Benton base was seen overseeing an awkward and slow-paced session with Isak on Wednesday.
Isak cut a frustrated and despondent figure, barely engaging with the staff member as he hit balls off a re-bound board and fired shots into an empty net.
The session ended shortly after 5pm and while it’s not clear if Isak and Eddie Howe engaged, the Newcastle boss could be seen leaving shortly after the striker came off the grass, making it unlikely – albeit not totally implausible – that the pair engaged.
Isak is quite clearly keeping his distance to the best of his ability, but it was blatantly obvious that he is not a happy camper. Dare I say it, he looked like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, perhaps realising his actions over the past months have done him no favours, no matter how much he wants that move.
What is clear, however, is that Isak’s attempts to burn bridges on Tuesday night have done nothing to help an already messy situation. If anything, they’ve backfired, angering Newcastle (and PIF, no doubt), while his character is thrown into question to an even greater extent by the media, who have already been condemning his actions over the past week.