We don’t hold out much hope, but Alexander Isak not getting his move to Liverpool may now depend on Aston Villa awaking from their transfer window slumber to prevent several striker dominoes falling in the last three days of the transfer window.
Having downed tools on the back of so-called ‘broken promises’ by Newcastle, Isak informed the world on social media that ‘this relationship can’t continue’. Newcastle immediately denied making such a vow and Eddie Howe doubled down on that stance in a press conference on Friday.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I never make any promises to any players regarding transfers because, ultimately, I’m not in control of the whole thing. I would never make a promise like that to any player.”
The ten days since his bombshell Instagram post has seen gradually increasing confidence that Isak will get what he wants. Newcastle have agreed a deal with Stuttgart for the £73m signing of Nick Woltemade, who is seen as a replacement for Isak while Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen pointedly wasn’t.
And after their opening bid of £110m was rejected by Newcastle almost a month ago, Liverpool are now poised to make their second offer, which is tipped to be around the £130m mark, likely with a chunk of add-ons.
But, despite recent murmurings to the contrary, The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards insists Newcastle remain adamant that they ‘need two strikers not one’ for Isak to leave this summer. And this is where Aston Villa could play a major role, in a gloriously indirect way, to prevent ‘three dominoes’ from ‘falling’.
Newcastle are still said to be interested in Strand Larsen. A £50m bid was rejected by Wolves on Monday, a second worth £55m snubbed on Wednesday and a third of £60m has been in the post since. The Norwegian ‘has been very clear that he wants this deal to go through’ but is ‘not agitating for an exit’ from Wolves, who aren’t for moving as they’ve already sold Fabio Silva to Borussia Dortmund this week and don’t fancy their chances of sourcing a replacement in what remains of the window.
The more likely signing now looks to be Yoane Wissa, who has pulled an Isak in order to force his transfer to St James’ Park. Newcastle bids of £25m and something close to £40m with bonuses have both been rejected by Brentford, who want £50m. And if the gross overpayment for Woltemade is anything to go by, the Magpies have reached a point where they have lost the will to negotiate and will bend to the Bees’ demands.
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But like Newcastle, Brentford need a replacement first. Dango Ouattara has already joined, but as a replacement for Bryan Mbeumo after his move to Manchester United. They now want Borussia Dortmund’s Maximilian Beier, with a report from BILD going as far as to suggest Brentford already made a ‘written offer’ of £55m plus £5m in add-ons for the 22-year-old, who got eight goals and six assists in his debut season for BVB after moving from Hoffenheim for £25m last summer. Will there be any strikers left in the Bundesliga by the time the Premier League is done with them?
Anyway, Aston Villa are the snake in the grass, the sh*t on the shoe, the ace in the hole to set a precedent that Premier League rebels don’t end up winning.
We have no great faith in a team that’s spent just £32m this summer, particularly given most of that outlay was on a new striker in Evann Guessand, which likely removed the need for them to sign another one. But even so, reports claim they too are interested in Beier, and are ‘lining up as last-minute bid’ for the Dortmund star to hijack Brentford and prevent the dominoes from falling.
Because if Brentford don’t get Beier, then Newcastle probably won’t get Wissa and – glory be – Liverpool may not get the architect of all this stress and misery, Alexander Isak.
Up the Villa and down with striking strikers.