TRon

Feels like Isak's agent has probably been told by Liverpool "Sorry pal, it hasn't worked out. Have you seen how much Newcastle are asking??!"

Maybe they don't think Liverpool should be dignified with an official response. Liverpool themselves have conducted this whole affair through the press haven't they?

You'd think so wouldn't you?

But the owners have said exactly what he thinks they should have done. Isak is not for sale.

There's not much we can do about their antics. But from our end, if we refuse to sell him at a distressed price - which we will - then we need to let the wounds heal all round and once there has been a week or two of sulking all round, get him reintegrated as soon as he's ready and scoring goals for Newcastle. It might sting for a large chunk of our fans, but that's the only way we win and Liverpool lose.

I think we'd have a fair idea tbh. Like I said, no harm in trying as long as we don't lose other players while hoping the top targets might come off.

We should probably have targeted more of these sort of deals to begin with. I can understand going for the top tier players, but if you know the cartel clubs are also in there, it's not worth wasting too much time trying to flog a dead horse.

What an absolute stinker of a signing he turned out to be. Forest played a blinder getting him off their books to the tune of £20m.

Yep. For all the hysteria, it's how you end the window which will matter, not what went before.

Not if we are signing Wissa. As has already been pointed out in the Jackson thread that would mean both would be missing for the AFCON for more than a month.

Keep Isak and it doesn't look too bad at all.

There are no realistic replacements now anyway, best we could do is invest in a young hopeful like Samu and pair him with Wissa and hope to replace the goals that way. But even that depends on Liverpool meeting the acceptable selling price for Isak which seems unlikely.

Just makes you stop and appreciate how well we've done to land two of the best midfielders in the PL if not the world.

I don't know why we are even talking about Guehi when we've more or less signed another CB. We still have a striker and a midfielder to buy, do people think those will cost a combined £30m or something?

This thread was depressing enough, now we have spanned two days talking about fucking Pardew just to stink it up a bit more.

He's more of a forward isn't he?

But they would still prefer to bank £40m than lose a player on a free.

I think the purchase of NUFC was also about putting Saudi Arabia on the map. Or sportswashing if you like. For that a super successful club is much better I reckon. If that becomes pretty much impossible then, yes it will just become another investment. Then there is less incentive to pour in a load of money into the region since they don't get much back investment wise.

I think the investment in the region would probably have gone hand in hand with being allowed to build NUFC into a powerhouse global brand to challenge Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid and so on. If the authorities have put blocks on that, then I wonder if the motivation for such regional investment has also took a back seat for now.

I don't think he did tbh. I said even last year that he would end up at Liverpool and won't be much of a surprise when he does. Thank fuck we finally stopped daydreaming and got the Thiaw deal done.

We might still end up with Jackson if Liverpool go for Wissa and reckon on leaving Isak until next season.

So glad we finally managed to read the room on this one. Let Liverpool have him for a knockdown fee, that's where he was always going to end up.

Didn't really consider that, but you are right. Along with Samu Aghehowa those were my two most likely replacements to fit alongside Wissa which would allow us to get rid of Isak if Liverpool stumped up the asking price. Not surprising really that we refuse to let Isak go then, we've run out of even 5th option strikers.

I don't think it's out of the question we sign Jackson and Wissa and let Isak go if we get close to £150m. I know the owners have said he's not leaving, but I get the feeling Eddie is done with him. I think Wissa is the more accomplished striker right now, but Jackson is younger so might still come good.