Bruno Guimaraes has commented on the situation surrounding Newcastle United teammate Alexander Isak and Liverpool.
Isak was in Austria with his Newcastle teammates when Liverpool made an informal approach. The situation then escalated quickly as Isak has been on strike for the past month.
The Sweden international sat out of the club’s pre-season tour of Asia and instead travelled to Spain to train individually at former club Real Sociedad.
Since returning to Tyneside, Isak has chosen to train alone and refused to play in the opening two Premier League matches, despite attempts to reintegrate him into the squad.
Alexander Isak increasingly likely to stay at Newcastle United amid Liverpool saga
Isak broke his silence on his future last week, releasing a statement that accused the club of breaking promises before concluding that “the relationship can’t continue”.
Newcastle refuted suggestions Isak has been told he could leave and, having maintained a strong stance throughout, said that they do not foresee the conditions of a sale being met.
To consider Isak’s exit, the Magpies would need to sign two strikers, having failed to sign any this summer, while Liverpool would need to significantly increase their opening £110million offer.
The likelihood of Isak staying is becoming stronger by the day, as the transfer window closes at 11pm on Tuesday. The next phase after that would then be to convince Isak to return.
Bruno Guimaraes agrees with Eddie Howe - wants Alexander Isak to return
Given Isak’s conduct and refusal to play, which has resulted in Newcastle picking up just one point from their opening matches against Aston Villa and Liverpool, there have been questions over whether the players would indeed welcome the Swede back with open arms.
"I haven't had any contact with him," Guimaraes told ESPN Brasil after Monday’s 3-2 defeat to Liverpool. "We've been training in the mornings, and he trains at a different time, when no one from the team is around.
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"As captain, and for us as players, it's a tough situation because we want to have the best players with us. But that's something we can't control - the club, the management, the owners are dealing with it, and I hope it gets sorted out in the best way.
“We're really missing our striker, a player who scored more than 20 goals in the Premier League last season, so of course he's someone we feel the absence of. We hope to have our best player back, but unfortunately this is a situation that neither I nor any other player can control."
Eddie Howe wants clarity on Alexander Isak situation
Howe has called for clarity on the Isak situation, although that is unlikely to arrive until the transfer closes, with the striker understood to still be refusing to play ahead of Saturday’s trip to Leeds United.
“Our side, Newcastle's side, is we want clarity, we want to move forward, we want the narrative to change because we're in the start of the season now, we're into the action and we've got to get results and we've got to try and focus on what we can control,” Howe said.
“We've given two really, really good performances, we've ended up at one point. That's tough for us to take, especially in this moment, when you're looking for positives to cling to. But we battled through and we've now go onto Leeds.”
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