13 Aug 2025 11:57:35
I don't like what's going on around isak atall. Player power is pretty disgraceful now a days. We had 1 local lad who was as sly as anything to get his move to Madrid. What's to say Madrid want isak in 2,3 years time . You be classy behind the scenes to a club that's been good to you.
13 Aug 2025 12:28:13
Take it you didn't want van Dijk or Mane then?
13 Aug 2025 12:37:50
Genuine question, but what has Isak actually done? No one from his team has made any official or public statement, everything being reported is coming from Newcastle themselves.
I'd suggest we wait until we actually hear from Isak before judging. If anything, maybe Newcastle should have kept quiet and gone about their business in a professional manner and maybe Isak would be available for the weekend.
13 Aug 2025 12:44:44
There are two sides to every coin though. And just as I defended Trent and his right to want to move on, I'd also defend Isak and his right to want ot move on. People will point to him being unprofessional and I agree with that, he absolutely is. I'd much rather he'd gone about it as Guehi has. But I'd also much rather Newcastle had gone about the situation in the same way Palace have.
As a club, you have to accept that the players are people as well as assets. If I wanted to change my job or move to a new place I could just hand my notice in and go. Footballers are increasingly treated like assets in the modern game and that's just not fair. No amount of money justifies treating a living and breathing person like an emotionless robot. Why should Isak have to put his life and career on hold because Newcastle are incompetent in the market? In fact, the way they've treated Isak will probably make it significantly harder for them to attract young and upcoming talents in the future. Footballers talk and this whole situation reflects very poorly on Newcastle and Howe in particular.
I do wish Isak had carried on attending training though and played in their pre-season games. They've done a lot for his career still and he owed them a bit more respect. In my opinion he should have submitted a formal transfer request whilst continuing to be professional. But in the same breath Newcastle should've accepted that an employee of theirs wants to move on and not tried to chain him the goal post at St James's Park.
It's an ugly mess.
13 Aug 2025 12:47:48
Not sure we know the whole story tbh so I would be careful to not rush to a judgement on the lad. Clearly it suits Newcastle Football Club to paint Isak as the villain for the fans to accept the sale.
13 Aug 2025 12:50:24
Who do you want to sign instead of Isak then?
13 Aug 2025 12:55:36
How do you know Newcastle has been good to Isak?
13 Aug 2025 12:55:52
You can't really compare the two, Trent did not refuse to play and did help us win the league. At this point nobody really knows what has happened behind the scenes other than paper talk.
13 Aug 2025 12:58:51
Then we’d sell him to Madrid Batman. When you own a football club you have to understand that progression is not linear. You can’t just keep adding to a squad without ever losing anyone you don’t want to lose.
Also sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward. Coutinho being a prime example of this as far as Liverpool are concerned.
We don’t know what’s gone on behind the scenes with Newcastle and Isak but you can bet it’s not as simple as Isak wanting to move so refusing to play. He’s quite possibly been offered assurances about his future with Newcastle which they have now gone back on so he’s not happy and rightly so.
I think we need to know the full story before pointing fingers and not just listen to the media as they have their own agendas. Merson and Neville are both criticising Isak and saying Newcastle should stand firm but we all know that’s just because they know Isak would hugely improve Liverpool and they can’t stand the thought of that. You could bet if he wanted to go to Arsenal or Utd they’d both be saying Newcastle shouldn’t keep an unhappy player.
Let’s just see how this plays out and I’m sure the truth will follow.
13 Aug 2025 13:09:49
Curious how you feel about VVD? Or how you felt about Mane?
13 Aug 2025 13:11:18
There are few similarities. On Isak he was clear about his intentions, telling the club he was going to leave next year to try his luck elsewhere. The other didn’t say a word, but had already made up his mind to go. A year to prepare for a new striker, along with a substantial financial deal, should be more then enough.
13 Aug 2025 13:42:05
Everyone keeps saying this “Madrid in a few years” nonsense
Isak doesn’t even make our top 3 players if he comes in.
Where was “madrid in a few years” with Virgil Van Dijk the best defender of this generation?
13 Aug 2025 13:49:38
From what I can tell Newcastle have been anything but good to Isak. They promised him a new contract to reflect his importance only to back out claiming PSR was the problem but then gave Gordon a bumper new contract. Isak also told them over a year ago of his desire to leave and they have completely ignored him. They could have had elite replacements lined up, received £150m for his transfer and gone about everything amicably and in everybody's best interest. Instead they chose to ignore him, go against his wishes, leak stories to the press to poison people against him and try and hold him against his will.
Oh and for those comparing this to Trent, I can give you £130m+ reasons why the 2 situations are not comparable. He's doing the opposite of running his contract down - he wants to move to another club for a fair market value.
13 Aug 2025 14:16:21
MK Scoucer
You say that if you want to change jobs you just hand in your notice and leave. This means that you inform your employer that you wish to leave at the end of your contract. Inmost cases this is either 1 week 1 month 3 months or a year. You then work your notice.
In Isaks case his contract ends in 3 years. That is the difference.
13 Aug 2025 14:47:00
No Kemlyn. If your role is permanent it’s what that says in the tin. It’s your job until you hand in your notice, made redundant, fired or retire. You can leave your job whenever you like and serve your notice.
That is the point MK is making.
13 Aug 2025 15:00:47
That is not how it works @old kemlyn. Most contracts are permanent contracts with no end date but they should contain a notice period that must be honoured if the contract is chosen to be terminated by either party (otherwise you would have to go to HR constantly to sign new contracts) .
13 Aug 2025 15:24:47
In reality the 3 years left on his contract mean Newcastle get a very good fee for the player. It doesn’t mean Isak will have to see out his contract if he wants to move on. They aren’t going to want to keep an unhappy player.
13 Aug 2025 15:33:27
As I understand it Isak has attended training but because of his desire to leave and a deterioration of his relationship with Howe and some of the players he’s being told to train on his own.
The party line for him not playing in preseason was an injury but in truth it was Newcastle that chose to not take him with them.
That’s very different to him not turning up.
13 Aug 2025 15:36:39
Honestly, if Newcastle have been mobilising all their contacts in the press to paint Isak out to be an ingrate who blindsided the club once Liverpool batted their lashes at him, I don't see how you could insinuate that they've treated him well. It has been suggested that Isak informed Newcastle that he would be leaving a full year ago, and if that's true then the performative outrage that the club's mouthpieces and sympathetic pundits are indulging in is positively absurd.
I too agree that Isak should have handed in a transfer request and then gone on strike, that would have been the right way to go about it, but it just seems to me that Newcastle are digging themselves in a deeper and deeper hole with the player, it's not just him that's burning bridges with the club, the club look like they're washing their hands of him and pissing him off with every piece of leaked spin, too.
Let's not treat Isak as though he is the unilateral aggressor here, it's ridiculous treating Newcastle as though they were the poor, victimised people's club taken advantage of by predatory Liverpool and mercenary Isak. If you really believe that, you'd probably believe anything you read in the news.
13 Aug 2025 16:31:09
Batman7, what did Isak do that other players in the same position have not done?
Also, talking about player power being disgraceful? Get with the program, mate. Player power became a thing as an after-effect of the Bosman rule. Player power came literally from there and no, it is not disgraceful. It is what it is.
For me, it is up to the clubs (and their fans) to adapt and make sure their interests are protected instead of of always screaming bloody murder each time it happens despite knowing there is a chance it could happen o one of their players. That's the way I see it.
13 Aug 2025 16:57:31
Did Isak actually say that he wanted to leave Newcastle last summer?
Why was there talk of a new contract then?
A lot of us are just speculating about speculation but Isak and other players should think more about the contracts they sign. Six years gives you security but it also ties you to a club, to some extent.