Liverpool are reportedly ready to ‘trigger a new offer’ for Alexander Isak, while there is an ‘internal belief’ about Newcastle United’s ‘promise’.
Isak‘s long-term future remains in doubt as he is still training alone and looking to leave Newcastle United to join Premier League rivals Liverpool.
The world-class striker is widely reported to be a dream target for Liverpool, who remain interested in the Newcastle standout even after landing Hugo Ekitike for around £80m.
At the start of this summer window, a move for Isak felt unfeasible as he is under contract until 2028 and is valued at around £150m.
However, Isak offered hope to Liverpool by informing Newcastle of his decision to leave this summer, and the Reds have already had a bid worth around £110m (plus £10m in add-ons) turned down by their rivals.
It has also been reported that Liverpool will eventually return with a second bid, though Newcastle will not sanction Isak’s exit until they have landed one or two strikers to fill the void left by the forward, while they appear to be bullishly refusing to budge on their asking price.
READ: Ranking all 97(!) players left out of opening Premier League matchday squads by how p*ssed off they might be
This bitter saga took another twist earlier this week as Isak and Newcastle issued statements, making their respective stances clear on this situation.
There is also the small matter of Liverpool travelling to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United on Monday night, with it suggested that an improved offer for Isak could be lodged once this match is out of the way.
Now, a report from journalist Dean Jones for our pals at TEAMtalk claims Liverpool are ‘to pull the trigger on a new Isak offer’, with Newcastle ‘preparing’ to receive an improved bid from their rivals.
The report adds:
‘Reports of a £150m price tag have circulated, but the Reds have valued Isak lower that. Sources close to the situation suggest a more realistic figure would be in the bracket of £120m-£130m.
‘Newcastle are beginning to expect another approach in the next week and accept that if Liverpool are serious, they will soon test the waters again ahead of the deadline.’
MORE ALEXANDER ISAK COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 ‘Arsenal can hijack Alexander Isak to Liverpool transfer’, it says here
👉 Isak has ‘legal leverage’ over Newcastle to force Liverpool transfer as ‘free agent’ in 2026
👉 Eze does it perfectly compared to Alexander Isak and his strikingly bad behaviour
The Daily Mail’s Craig Hope, meanwhile, claims the breach of a ‘soft promise’ sparked this transfer saga.
It is claimed that Amanda Stavely and Mehrdad Ghodoussi had conversations’ with Isak and made a ‘soft promise to revisit an improved contract’ in the 2024 summer transfer window.
They felt ‘it was deserved, it would keep the player happy and it would avoid an eventuality like the one we’ve landed on this summer’.
However, talks broke down once Stavely and Ghodoussi ‘left the club against their will’, while sporting director Paul Mitchell made the ‘cold hard decision’ to shut down contract negotiations, arguing that Newcastle had no reason to improve Isak’s deal as he had ‘four years left on your contract and was already among the very highest earners’.
Hope has also revealed the ‘internal belief’ at Newcastle on what would have happened had Isak been given an improved new deal.
‘My sources and people internally genuinely do believe, now with no way of knowing if this would be the case or not, they genuinely believe if they’d given Alexander Isak the contract and the money he thought he was deserving, and again we’ll use that term, soft promise that was coming down the line last summer, none of this would have played out.
‘So we go forward 12 months, arrive at the end of the season and by this point Alexander Isak feels he has missed out on a year’s worth of money he was owed. Let’s call it if it was going to be a £100,000 pay rise, what’s that over the course of a year? That’s £5million gross he thinks he’s missed out on. Because of that, his mind is made up, broken promises to come back to the statement. He’s checked out. He checked out last summer guys.’