20 Aug 2025 00:22:04
As reported over the last number of weeks, Isak to Liverpool is now unlikely. It was great reading the positive news, and I for one would love nothing more to happen, but it wasn’t all true.
The PIF being unrelenting in their stance has made it increasingly difficult and our recruitment team are now considering moving for different options. Bradley Barcola as previously reported by journos is of huge interest but that deal is next to impossible. There is a feeling that a deal for Lautaro Martinez may yet be possible as a stop gap but it’s late in the window. Mateta remains of interest but again, very late in the window and unlikely Palace sanction a sale.
Will be interesting to see how the next two weeks develop.
20 Aug 2025 01:32:10
Barcola or Rodrygo. Otherwise we shouldn't bother. Play Rio and Chiesa more often and go back for isak in Jan. Martinez. Mateta. these guys aren't the required level.
20 Aug 2025 01:42:13
I mentioned that this would happen and Newcastle would create the illusion of trying to get replacements in to sanction a sale but would ultimately fall short and use the ‘well we did try’ narrative. We should have kept one of Nunez or Diaz if there was no attainable plan b, which seemingly there isn’t. We probably sold Nunez to Saudi at a slight cut price to sweeten the Isak deal but that was an error, what they offered wasn’t even that much more than Napoli, although there was probably more given up front.
I think we put too many eggs in the isak basket and I said this looked to be a mistake with how Newcastle was playing the game. They’re not very well run in the recruitment department it seems so they indirectly have played us here and I think without isak, we are short in our forward line, especially with afcon and potential injuries, as we got lucky with them last season imo. We will see but I have doubted the isak move for a while now even with ITK’s coming out with good news regarding him. I’ll happily eat pie if I’m wrong. Their club statement is pretty much a full stop, hence why there hasn’t been much development for weeks now regarding him, they’re just letting time run out.
20 Aug 2025 02:32:01
Newcastle is an absolute shambles. Surely this has ruined their reputation in the football world, no young player or agent with any ambition to progress in their career beyond carabao cups will ever sign for Newcastle after seeing how they’ve handled isak’s situation.
20 Aug 2025 04:47:59
I’m not sure the ‘eggs in one basket ‘ is true. We signed Hugo.
20 Aug 2025 05:41:32
We signed Hugo. and then let lucho and darwin go, wdw, we had to have been absolutely certain isak would join. I still think he will, let's see what happens the next day or two.
20 Aug 2025 05:52:53
What effectively has happened in my eyes is that Newcastle failed to sign anybody and are forcing isak to stay so that it looks like a victory in the eyes of the fans. The truth is that they have had, if reports are true, an entire year to prepare, but they thought they could convince isak to stay when he said very clearly that he'd like to go.
Instead of asking why everybody involved in transfers in Newcastle failed to prepare for isak's departure, the fans are focusing their ire on isak himself and on Liverpool for supposedly tapping him up, low balling, pressing the issue, unsettling the player. Somehow Newcastle have made it look like none of this is their fault.
It's really quite appalling from newcastle, of course we could say that isak is behaving badly and he could continue to play like eze and guehi have, but if it's true that the club told him that he could leave if a big club came calling and they went back on their word, then you can understand his frustration and why he might not want to put on the shirt anymore.
Effectively they are trying to force him to stay not because they want to keep him at all costs, but because they were completely passive in preparing for his intended departure, and to save face in a window where they have failed spectacularly in replacing him when they finally realised that he wasn't joking around.
All the while Newcastle fans are feeling sympathy for the higher-ups at the club when they have let them down massively, that the Newcastle reporters are saying this could still be a successful window if they keep isak is just a complete joke and farcical propaganda.
{Ed025's Note - BREAKING NEWS;- sometimes people tell lies...especially on social media..
20 Aug 2025 06:45:54
Yes Newcastle, but to keep Nunez would have been stupid because Slot would not play him, Diaz made it clear he wanted to leave so to keep him is doing the same as Newcastle. Newcasyle assume Isak will start playing for them again, I am not so sure, come Jan he will put in a transfer request and what do Newcastle do then, when he hadn't played in 5 months and they are 10th in the league and out of Europe.
20 Aug 2025 07:19:15
Do you genuinely think Isak is lying ed25? I don't personally, I just think the people who told him he would get a move have left and circumstances have changed for Newcastle. Plus they don't want to appear to be being bullied into selling. An official transfer request should have been already handed in by Isak. He can't have his cake and eat it.
With the way Ekitike has started his career here, the emergence of Rio and a fully fit Chiesa, I'm not too fussed on getting Isak in at the price being asked. Obviously there's no guarantee that Eke will carry on the way he has started but it looks like with him Salah and Gakpo as the starting front 3 we look pretty good. Chiesa, Rio, Frimpong and even Szobo can be the backups, maybe we get one more forward in the mix and we're well stocked up front until January at least. It's not all doom and gloom if we don't get Isak, we've still had an amazing transfer window so far, Isak would have just been the cherry of top of the cherry.
{Ed025's Note - as i say i cant say Isac is lying or telling the truth Kopite, Newcastle have refuted that any promises were made so who do you believe?, obviously you will say Isac because you dont want your club to be associated with a liar and a breaker of promises but the fact is we dont know mate..
20 Aug 2025 07:32:57
Maybe he’s not lying, maybe he’s just a bit thick and he was duped in to thinking ‘a promise has been made’ when it really wasn’t. Could be by the club, could be by his agent.
Footballers are not known for their intelligence.
20 Aug 2025 08:19:41
Whether he is lying or not, it is not in Newcastle's self interest to keep him now.
20 Aug 2025 08:26:23
This summer window has sent the Newcastle project back years. To grow, they were always going to have to manage the Sale of big players and reinvest wisely.
They had an exciting up and coming project to sell but now they are club that can't sign players and hold onto players that want to leave. I am one who doesn't condone Isak's actions.
Newcastle could not have handled this whole thing any worse. Even if they sell now, their reputation is already in tatters.
My prediction is they keep, he rejoins the fold eventually. Does well but not as well as last year. Newcastle get Europa league tops. More players than Isak want out next year and and even bigger rebuild is needed. Newcastle becomes a tougher project to sell.
But the thing is if they sell, they are in the same position above as they will waste the money now probably as somehow they are not prepared. Their projects reputation is already in tatters.
They had to sell way earlier in the window the minute he refused to play. Horrendous handling . If the idea was to make Isak a villain, then the person who came up with that plan should be sacked. It's making a joke of Newcastle as much as Isak. That's why I'm not sure it was the plan. If it was, sack that person immediately.
They need a DOF immediately who has history of growing clubs. Not any kind of hot name. Someone dedicated who has. Longevity in roles. The whole project needs to become more patient, calculated, planned. Understand you will lose big players but build on that. Be prepared for that. Utter shambolic handling.
20 Aug 2025 08:51:26
Maybe the person who made the promise has you know, left the club.
20 Aug 2025 09:05:12
I would very much doubt that he'd make such a public statement without it actually being made to him by Newcastle management.
20 Aug 2025 09:10:48
I’d say if anything this makes it a lot more likely we are going to sign him.
Newcastle aren’t going to keep a player who’s thrown all the toys out of the pram publicly like that. Short of strikers or not he won't play for them again. Makes total sense to take the money and reinvest now.
20 Aug 2025 09:31:58
I don't think that the public statements last night change much to be honest. The stance put across by both parties was only what we already knew their stance was.
In reality there is no benefit to Newcastle in making him stay and if they do they are basically shooting themselves in the foot just to spite their best player. They have turned the fans against him and angered him so much that he has no interest in playing for them again. He will likely move on next summer at the latest and probably for a much lower fee. On the other hand they could take a British record fee now and stop worrying about PSR for a little while. At this point signing a replacement is irrelevant when the striker you have has no desire or motivation to play for the club. Jackson and Wissa are available, willing to join and affordable. The fact that they are not moving these deals forward in mind-boggling.
The next few days will be very interesting. I think we will get some clarity one way or another. Whatever happens we need another CF. We have lost 3 options through the middle and only brought in 1.
20 Aug 2025 09:35:39
Haven't seen FatWallet on here since his post got pinned at the top of the banter page.
Starting to think he may appear come 1st September with a grin on his face shouting "TOLD YOU SO! "
20 Aug 2025 10:09:47
BREAKING NEWS: Sometimes people tell the truth. Even on social media.
It’s a very dark world if we start treating everything we read as a falsehood until unproven.
20 Aug 2025 08:23:31
ED025 is it not the wording of Newcastles statement, no offical with the club made any promise? Would it be that Staveley said this and is now gone so both statements are correct but not telling the whole story?
Thanks.
{Ed025's Note - very possibly KF, i dont think we will ever know the full truth really mate..
20 Aug 2025 08:33:09
Whatever you might think about the situation ed025, the fact is that if Newcastle had managed to prepare for this situation and bring in a replacement, Isak wouldn't be there anymore.
They're posturing like they want to keep their best player, but if this was the case, why didn't they issue a statement saying they wouldn't let him leave at any price, and not allow the press all summer long to suggest that they value him at 150m? Why would they be trying to sign a striker left right and center once they realised Isak wasn't playing around and that they needed to get a center forward in quickly? Surely if there was a plan to build the team around Isak from the start, there would have been a more aggressive approach to signing targets for key positions, rather than the completely scattershot approach they've exhibited.
The fact is that they know it's in their best interests to cash in and move on, but they have been unable to convince anybody to come and take his place. They should have put in the groundwork to get a replacement in months and months ago, but have allowed it to develop to this point, and are now pinning all of their failings in managing the situation and planning for the future of the club on Isak's shoulders. worse yet, after this, they still expect to compel him to turn up for training, win the golden boot and play in Europe for them.
{Ed025's Note - i dont blame Newcastle at all PB , they want to either keep hold of him or get the best possible price for him mate, im sure if it was Liverpool in their shoes you would be wanting them to do exactly the same..
20 Aug 2025 08:47:28
Ed025 I’ve not seen any comments from the club saying they made no promises all they have said is that they never said he could not leave this summer.
I think the promise is of a new contract what should have been done last summer even Howe said in an press conference last summer there was a lot of unrest in the dressing room at the beginning of the season over wages what caused a bad start to the season. I am only guessing but am thinking that’s why there was a power struggle between Howe and Mitchell. £120k a week seem like a massive wage but nowadays it’s not Ed and if you value a player at £130m+ that’s not a wage that fits the player Ed and I know he is contracted but Newcastle want be thought of as a big club they need to act like one because any big club with a player the sign like that and they start to perform how he has for them they give new contracts before they even ask Ed to avoid stuff like this. We renewed Salah’s a year after he signed Ed and over doubled his wage to match his performances from the season before.
{Ed025's Note - we are all guessing about what the truth is Grino, its a he said she said scenario mate and Newcastle are playing hard ball, they have set a price so either pay it or walk away...unless you think you can get him for 30 bob and a dead mouse and screw them big time..
20 Aug 2025 09:02:17
So suddenly after all your criticisms of the Saudis Ed you believe them over Isak?
Come on, we all know what the Saudis are about. We’ve all been critical of their human rights record and the sportswashing, yet suddenly they say they didn’t say he could leave and we think they are whiter than white and wouldn’t lie?
Obviously they are lying. There’s no way Isak would’ve taken it this far if he hadn’t been told he can leave. In his eyes the last game of last season was his last game for Newcastle because that’s what he was told so he’s been preparing to leave.
Then they go back on their word and force him to stay.
It’s pointless anyway if he won’t play for them they are just shooting themselves in the foot. They are an absolute joke of a club.
{Ed025's Note - when have you seen me criticise the saudi,s Robbo?, i dont get involved in all that crap mate, how is it obvious the owners a lying ffs?, do you know Isac personally and can vouch for his honesty and integrity?, you are a guesser and a chancer who believes what you want to hear, stop making things up..
20 Aug 2025 09:31:43
Ed025, in Newcastle statement they refute any commitments being made, but in the same statement then they the conditions for a sale this summer have not been met. So which is it? The same reporter who released the statement has now released another article saying should Newcastle sign Wissa and a bid of around 130m come in Newcastle could change there stance. Also the same reporters reporting that the dressing room is divided with a lot of players supporting Isak, why would they do that if he was lying?
{Ed025's Note - you lot have to stop making things up you know AD, you are listening to newspaper hacks and bloggers and putting 2&2 together and coming up with 127, the truth is we just dont know what was said or agreed, who,s to say St Isac is not telling porky pies? or in fact the owners mate?..
20 Aug 2025 18:26:24
It could be both, alex.
26 Aug 2025 02:53:57
If we're bringing in an alternative then it should be another 9. we are well stocked in the wing positions and would hate to see even Rodrygo come in and limit Rio's opportunities even further.