Suggestions during a sometimes fraught summer that Newcastle United’s majority owners the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia have dialled back their backing are misplaced.
Exhibit A? Tuesday night’s statement on Alexander Isak, which was signed off by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund at a pace not normally associated with an organisation where the structure and governance tends to slow down dynamic decision-making.
Newcastle’s missive, a response to Isak’s Instagram story claiming the club has “broken promises” to him, was considered important enough for individuals in some of the most senior positions in PIF to become involved in the drafting and sentiment of it.
In a close season where the majority owners have been accused of losing interest, that level of involvement on such a key club matter feels significant.
That the message comes from the very top of PIF is also an illustration of how strong Newcastle’s stance on the discontented Isak is now.
Isak has three years left on his current deal at St James’ Park (Photo: Getty)
“Total alignment” is the phrase used by insiders about the statement and it seems to leave Isak and his representatives little room for manoeuvre after their own decision to go public.
If a few online sleuths from the red half of Merseyside combed through it and decided the wording was opening the door to Liverpool to submit another bid, they were interpreting the careful tone of it wrong.
The intention, carefully worded to protect the club in case a game-changing offer does arrive, was to lay out in no uncertain terms that they will not be pushed into accepting an offer while their sale terms haven’t been met.
It isn’t quite a game over – there is no such thing in the transfer window – but it isn’t far from being one in this tortuous saga.
As reported by The i Paper last month, one of Liverpool’s three conditions for bringing in another forward is that they are “attainable”, the others being they represent fair market value and would be able to strengthen the first team.
Talks are continuing with Brentford over Yoane Wissa (Photo: Getty)
Frankly it no longer feels as if Isak ticks more than one of those boxes.
For Newcastle, the bigger picture is what it says about the direction of travel under PIF, whose internal targets for this season are high and whose ambition is understood to be undimmed from when chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan very deliberately stated that he wanted the club to be “No 1”.
They remain, in truth, a long way from that, as this summer’s sometimes sobering attempts to land elite talent have shown.
But a PIF pivot is underway with a wider reboot of the club’s operations around the corner.
The announcement of a new chief executive, a key role that has been vacated by Darren Eales due to health reasons, is a matter of weeks away and will be followed by a new director of football with a longer term remit than Paul Mitchell’s recruitment-focused outlook.
Supporting roles have been filled over the summer – a first technical director, a promotion for Jack Ross to head of strategy and director of football for the ambitious women’s team are all viewed as important – and PIF’s emotional and financial investment will step up in the months to come.
The club are listed as one of PIF’s select group of international strategic investments, which means they are viewed as a long-term asset that benefit from a hands-on approach from the fund.
In Riyadh, it is understood, there are a team of 40 to 50 people continually working on and working through Newcastle matters.
For all that industry, there is an acceptance, though, that the messaging from the ownership needs to be better moving forward when the new structure is in place.
But a message has been sent this summer that Newcastle aren’t prepared to be pushed into a corner by the existing elite.
Previous iterations of the club’s ownership would undoubtedly have folded by now but the Magpies seem to be doing what big clubs do, only countenancing a sale of a key player on terms that suit them.
And it is not an emotional decision but one based, as PIF’s strategy has consistently been, on what makes sense in the long-term.
What use is £110m of financial wiggle room if the replacement is a short-term, overvalued option who doesn’t quite fit?
Having found their feet in the transfer market – Andy Howe has quietly impressed after a baptism of fire early in the summer – Newcastle are now focused on the final missing pieces of the jigsaw after the swift and impressive captures of Malick Thiaw and Jacob Ramsey this week.
The need for another striker is obvious but the market is a difficult one.
Newcastle’s search appears to have settled on two options this week: Yoane Wissa and Jorgen Strand Larsen.
A £35m bid for the former was rejected on Wednesday amid conflicting information from the player’s side and Brentford, whose position has always been that they cannot leave themselves weaker before 1 September.
In a mirror image of the Magpies’ plight with Isak, it is as much about getting a replacement as it is about the valuation.
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Newcastle’s interest in Wissa remains but perhaps the optimism that a swift deal can be concluded should be reined in.
Work on Larsen has intensified this week but Wolves are not willing sellers either so the prospects of Anthony Gordon starting up front against Liverpool are growing by the day.
The word is that the Magpies are prepared to be nimble and react to market opportunities, of which insiders think there will be plenty in the final days of the transfer window, but getting a striker to take them to the next level feels like the biggest examination of a testing summer.
There remains the potential to do one other deal on top of the Callum Wilson replacement but the focus for now is on a forward.
Get that and Newcastle might be able to look to the future with some optimism.