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News
- 25 Jul 2025
The Alexander Isak enigma: Newcastle striker’s transfer request is not all it seems
Robin Bairner
- 2 Aug 2025 05:00 CDT
- 5 min read
Analysis
Alexander Isak has told Newcastle United that he wants to leave. But does he really?
For all the chatter of a British record move to Liverpool and rumours of a big approach from the Saudi Pro League, there’s so much about this transfer story that doesn’t quite make sense.
Indeed, everything adds up to Isak’s end game not being a move away from St James’ Park but instead being a contract more worthy of his status as the Premier League’s best centre-forward, with the exception of the exceptional Erling Haaland.
Transfer Rumour
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
Alexander Isak
F (C)
Newcastle Utd.
Liverpool FC
Some critics have suggested that Newcastle are no longer a big enough club for him, that they cannot offer him what he really wants, yet the timing of his so-called transfer request therefore doesn’t add up.
Why wait until late July to go public on a desire to leave Newcastle? More puzzling still, why wait until Liverpool, the club most interested in you, have literally just announced the signing of a €90 million centre-forward in the form of Hugo Ekitike before making it known?
Arsenal, the other team widely credited with holding serious summer interest in Isak, had long given up on landing him. Instead, they had virtually secured the signing of Viktor Gyokeres, his compatriot, before the Newcastle striker’s transfer desire was revealed.
Surely if he really wanted to leave the Toon, this desire is made abundantly clear days and even weeks earlier?
Is this about a transfer or a bigger contract?
Isak appears to be exerting modest but increasing pressure on Newcastle to give him a bumper new contract. First came a thigh problem that caused him to miss out on summer friendly games, then came the big reveal of his transfer request. He’s already shown he’s a player worth breaking the club’s wage structure for.
The Saudi rumours are interesting, too. The Guardian reports that he has been offered a deal worth €700,000 per week by Al-Hilal.
The Pro League side is, of course, owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), who have Newcastle as its flagship club.
Why would PIF want to lose the goodwill of the Newcastle support by taking Isak from them to land him at another of their clubs? They would be as well hitting the self-destruct button at St James’ if they were to do that.
Perhaps there’s a loophole they feel they can exploit to circumvent the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), which have curtailed their spending. After all, watching Chelsea do this time and again must be privately infuriating for a cash-rich board that has been shackled by these regulations.
After watching Todd Boehly sell the Chelsea women’s team to himself, might the Saudis feel they can sell Isak to one of their Pro League clubs, give him the salary he wants and then loan him back to Newcastle, who would only pay him a fraction of his wages? It’s just a theory.
Certainly, there’s something that doesn’t quite add up in this Isak business.
He may not be totally settled at Newcastle, but if he’s not there come September, it would still rate as a big surprise.
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