Alexander Isak has completed a British record £130m transfer to Liverpool after Newcastle United finally buckled in their attempts to keep their star striker.
Telegraph Sport takes a deep dive into a saga that began more than a year ago and looks at the reasons why Newcastle reluctantly decided to sell the Sweden international.
It was 16 months ago that Newcastle first realised they would have an issue with Isak. With the club in dire need of funds to avoid a profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) breach, Newcastle were desperate. Chelsea made a tentative approach to assess whether they would be willing to sell Isak. An asking price, well in excess of £150m, was quoted and Chelsea immediately backed off. Newcastle solved their PSR concerns with the sale of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion.
Isak’s agent, though, began to agitate. Newcastle learnt, through a series of conversations with clubs and intermediaries across Europe, that the striker was being offered around.
Isak had been told by his representatives he could get a move to his choice of top European side if he pushed to leave St James’ Park. When he discussed the matter with Newcastle’s senior management team, he was told that was not the case. He was not for sale at any price.
When Paul Mitchell was appointed as sporting director, he was alarmed at the state of the club’s finances. Rather than sign players, he realised there was little money to spend.
Any big-money signing made last summer would have meant a high-profile sale was required in 2025. Perhaps, as Newcastle embarked on a long – and ultimately fruitless – pursuit of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guéhi, this is where Isak and agent got the idea he would be that big departure.
In turn, there was no way Newcastle could sanction a new contract for Isak, on wages approaching £250,000-a-week, without getting themselves into trouble. A new contract had been promised by former co-owner Amanda Staveley. However, Mitchell told Isak’s agent, as well as the club’s board and manager, that talks would need to be postponed. There was little push back from the player’s side, although there was frustration that a pay rise would not come immediately. Isak was told a new deal would be offered in 2025. Sources close to those talks insisted the situation was amicable.
Isak’s camp, though, have argued that this was the moment the player’s relationship with the club changed and provoked him to declare that season would be his last. Although Eddie Howe and others were aware Isak had been unsettled, Telegraph Sport understands the Swede did not inform anyone that he would play only one more year. If he had, the events of this summer may have played out very differently.
Isak did not look happy at the start of the season. His form was poor, he scored just one goal in his first seven games and he looked a shadow of the player he had been in the previous two years.
It was the lacklustre performance at Fulham that brought things to a head. Howe was fed up with Isak sulking. There were strong words, Isak was told that he was a Newcastle player and would remain one, that if he wanted to be an elite player, he had to play and behave like one. It was a triumph for Howe’s man-management skills.
It is with this in mind that Newcastle drew up their plan for this summer, which was always designed to try to keep Isak. If Howe could reintegrate the player once, he could surely do so again.
Newcastle saw the best of Isak as they put together a nine-game winning run in December, equalling a club record. Isak was happy and content. He dismissed all suggestions in interviews that he was keen to leave and spoke glowingly about the club and the city. He was re-energised and re-motivated, scoring 18 goals in 18 games between October 27 and January 25.
On the eve of the League Cup final in March, Isak told the media he had everything he wanted at Newcastle and insisted he was not thinking about a future away from the club.
However, insiders say Isak’s behaviour changed again after that Wembley win. He became quiet and withdrawn; he was not focused or working hard in training.
Having scored the winning goal against Liverpool at Wembley and enjoyed the victory parade, there are those that think Isak, privately, felt he had achieved all he wanted as a Newcastle player.
Indeed, some insiders suggested, from April onwards, Isak was behaving and playing like someone who did not want the team to qualify for the Champions League, as he knew it would make it harder for him to explain to Howe and the supporters why he wanted to go.
It was against that backdrop that Newcastle’s board began to consider what they would do if Isak wanted to leave. They were braced for bids and attempts to unsettle the player. An asking price in excess of £150m was the first and most important step. It was so high, it was designed to effectively inform potential buyers that the player was not for sale.
Telegraph Sport was first made aware of the fact Isak was considering his future at the end of May. The noises were similar to the ones made a year earlier.
Howe has since revealed the player informed him that he would like to go two weeks before the end of last season. Given how poor he had been in the run-in, it did not come as a huge surprise.
The response was not what Isak expected, or wanted, to hear: the board did not want to sell. At no point was Isak told by his manager that he could leave if Newcastle signed a replacement.
It was explained that the board wanted to negotiate a new contract. If the player still wanted to depart in 2026, a release clause, between £120-130m would protect him and them. If Isak was willing to commit to one more year, he would receive a massive pay rise and would have a clear route of departure open.
The player’s agent, though, insisted there would be no contract talks and tried to cajole Newcastle into looking for Isak’s replacement immediately.
The main powerbrokers at St James’ Park presented a united response, but there was a warning that if Isak forced his way out of the club for less than the asking price, it would set a dangerous precedent. As one source put it: “Isak would create the blueprint, he would show everyone how you got Newcastle to buckle. This is about far more than just Isak, it is about what sort of club we want to be and how we are perceived, by players, agents and rival clubs. We have to stay strong and we have to resist. If we don’t, other players will think they can do the same.”
The sudden departure of Mitchell threw Newcastle into chaos. Although his relationship with Howe had been a difficult one, nobody expected him to leave his job after less than a year having failed to sign a single player.
With Newcastle also effectively without a chief executive because of Darren Eales’ poor health, Howe was left without a management structure above him and a series of setbacks followed.
Newcastle tried – and failed to sign – Liam Delap, João Pedro and James Trafford and walked away from interest in Bryan Mbeumo when the player insisted he wanted to sign for Manchester United.
Newcastle’s ambition in the window was to sign a versatile forward who can compete with Isak but also play out wide, a right-sided forward, a right-sided centre-back, a midfielder and a goalkeeper.
There was no plan to sell Isak, but they did want proper competition for him. There was also a view from some senior figures that, if someone was going to bid ridiculous money for the player, they would, given his desire to leave, have to at least consider it. When Callum Wilson rejected a pay-as-you-play deal, Newcastle knew they desperately needed to sign another centre-forward.
The belief, internally, was that Isak, who had been described as intelligent and level-headed, could be talked out of agitating to leave when he saw the calibre of players they were looking to recruit, which included his friend and international team-mate Anthony Elanga. There was no sense of panic despite a meeting between Howe and Isak’s agent at the training ground in which he once again demanded his client was sold.
Newcastle’s interest in Hugo Ekitike was revealed by Telegraph Sport on July 13. Two days later, Isak’s camp made their move, leaking a story that Liverpool had made contact with Newcastle and would be willing to offer £120m for Isak.
Encouraged by Newcastle’s pursuit of Ekitike, Isak felt the time was right to put pressure on. When Liverpool won the race for Ekitike, Newcastle lost another long-standing target.
Had the France Under-21 international arrived, Newcastle’s position on Isak would have softened if Liverpool were willing to match – or at least get close to – the £150m asking price.
Newcastle had discussed releasing a statement, which would declare Isak would not be sold in this window, to end the speculation. It was decided by the board that this was too risky given the volatile nature of Isak’s behaviour and they could yet receive a bid that was too large to reject.
Telegraph Sport was reassured that everything the club was doing was designed to keep Isak rather than sell. Howe remained distant from the situation, to preserve his relationship with the player, and left it to the board to communicate their stance to him.
Isak sensed his chances of leaving had deteriorated and things escalated. He was withdrawn from a pre-season friendly against Celtic and then withdrew himself from the pre-season tour of Asia. Things had turned so toxic between the Newcastle hierarchy and his representatives that all sorts of threats were made, including one that Isak would refuse to play for the club again if he was not sold.
Having claimed he was injured, Isak’s camp waited until Newcastle were onboard a flight to Singapore to leak another story saying he “wanted to explore his options to leave the club”.
It was, according to Newcastle sources, designed to cause maximum damage. Senior figures at St James’ Park were furious, including Howe, who had been blindsided. Frantic meetings and phone calls took place on a layover at Dubai airport.
There was confusion and anger. Newcastle suspected Liverpool had been manoeuvring all summer to create this situation, encouraging the agent, so that they would be able to sign Isak for a much lower fee. Howe, who was close friends with Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes, refused to engage with his former team-mate.
Nobody at Newcastle had anticipated Isak behaving in this way and, for the first time, some began to wonder if it would be best to sell the player, who flew to San Sebastian, without permission, to use the training facilities of former club Real Sociedad.
When Howe met with the player on his return to England to try to smooth things over, Isak said he would not play for the club again and insisted they had to let him leave.
Newcastle decided to actively try to sign a replacement, launching moves for Benjamin Sesko and Yoane Wissa. For the first time they were trying to sign two strikers concurrently, to allow Isak to move on. Both bids failed.
Liverpool finally made their interest in Isak official, offering a deal worth £110m. It was so swiftly and forcibly rejected that Liverpool retreated, insisting there was no point bidding again unless Newcastle offered them encouragement to do so.
Howe once again tried to get through to Isak and urged him to return to training before the opening game of the season at Aston Villa. The Swede refused, insisting he would only return if Liverpool made it clear they would not make a second bid.
The Newcastle owners, though, continued to believe Isak could be reintegrated. With his hopes of a move fading as Newcastle struggled to sign one striker, let alone the two needed to sanction his departure, Isak made one final desperate attempt to force them to sell.
An explosive statement, released on Instagram, accused Newcastle of breaking promises. For the second time in a few weeks, the Newcastle hierarchy were furious at being blindsided and released a statement of their own. Their position hardened again. They denied any promises had been made to let him leave, adding they did not “foresee the circumstances” in which their conditions for his departure would be met. Isak refused to budge.
Even a visit to his home from co-owner Jamie Reuben and a Public Investment Fund (PIF) delegation in the final week of the transfer window, failed to bring him round. Isak was asked to commit to Newcastle for one more year and return to training that week in return for a new contract with a release clause.
Isak’s behaviour and attitude shocked some members of that delegation, who began to argue keeping him could do more harm than good.
Newcastle stepped up their search for a new striker and eventually landed Germany Under-21 international Nick Woltemade for a club record £69m, although it was stressed that he had been signed as Wilson’s replacement.
Behind the scenes there was confusion. Howe and Reuben had left the decision on Isak’s future in PIF’s hands and in the final days of the window, did not know what that decision would be. That was still the case when the recruitment team were exploring a deal for Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Jorgen Strand Larsen over the weekend.
Isak had done so much damage to his reputation, incensing the supporters, that in the end PIF decided a deal made sense, as long as Liverpool were willing to pay £130m.
Regrettably and reluctantly, PIF decided that it was better to sell than keep a player who had turned everything around him toxic. When Isak agreed to relinquish loyalty payments, totalling £2m, a fee was agreed with Liverpool of £128m at 10:50pm on Sunday evening.
The money was invested swiftly, with a long-standing stand-off with Brentford broken, to sign Wissa for around £55m. Newcastle had the two strikers they needed to facilitate Isak’s move and a fee, that in the end, was too good to turn down for a player who no longer wanted to be at the club.
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