Unbelievable

Ok mate. We’ll see which approach the club take should he be made to stay. I can see an improved contract with a release clause eventually being offered after the dust has settled and some sense of normality returns, but it would be something like with a year’s extension and a 200m release clause or something, i.e. it would require some form of commitment from Isak too, and some benefit from the club’s perspective. It certainly shouldn’t be our going-in position this summer to appease him by weakening our hand. Again, Eddie Howe’s comments about earning the right to train with and be part of the first team point directly towards Isak having to eat crow initially and accepting the errors of his ways if he wants to redeem himself, which he will have to unless someone offers us the money we want, and not a penny less.

It’s fairytale stuff to expect someone to honour their fucking contract now is it..?

We get his head right by giving the Wilson replacement a first team spot first few games while he considers how stupidly he’s acted this summer by foregoing pre-season with the rest of the first team. Then when the penny has dropped that he’ll need to perform at his best to get his move next year and do well in the world cup is when he gets his chance to redeem himself and earn the starting place through training and acting like a grown up in the intermediate period. I trust Howe to manage this situation something like this btw. To reward this behaviour would set a terrible precedent. No player is bigger than the club, not even Alexander Isak.

Fuck that

I don’t think so. The revenue from the sale will be booked in the year of the sale. Obviously with the three year rolling thing the benefit of that carries forward, but if SCR gets introduced for 2026/27 a summer of 2025 sale of Isak will not help us meet that 70% target (assuming we manage to qualify for Europe again), whereas a July 2026 sale would. Or am I missing something?

Should have arrived using Blue Line taxi service and got dropped off at the main gate

That bit of news passed me by. Great news for us and all the more reason to sell Isak next year as that will ensure our revenue next season will be inflated when it needs to be, no..?

Again, not that simple as PL has introduced squad cost ratio for this season limiting our spending on player cost to 70% of revenue. The gamble will be on how high our revenue can become if we go deep in the CL for example. I think whatever happens we cannot have let go of Longstaff, Kelly and Wilson without a succession plan (ideally an upgrade) in place for each of them. It’s imperative we strengthen CB and CM imo, alongside CF (a Wilson replacement if Isak stays, and someone to replace Isak too if someone pays at least what we want for him in order to enable us to do the above). A lot of work left to do with only four weeks left. Also integration will need to happen while the season is underway, which is far from ideal. Fair to say it’s been a clusterfuck of a window so far. No way it can end this way…

I would. Don’t particularly rate Ramos, think Sesko has more potential and the age difference means Sesko’s value is more likely to increase over the next few years.

Agreed. He was going to leave us for pennies last January before he signed a new deal to stay on, wasn’t he? Dubs has been a great servant at a dark time for the club and stepped up again last season to keep our season going on the road to silverware and CL qualification. He will go with my best wishes, most definitely.

What’s sensible is to let this one run its course and for our transfer committee to turn its attention to CB and CM if they haven’t already. It’s high time we step up in the pursuit of suitable additions there and the finances involved for these positions may also dictate what needs to happen to the Isak situation.

I find it bizarre that some think that some of the most talented players in the world would be “desperate” to join Newcastle over other big clubs, unless they have some previous positive affiliation with us, which let’s be real not many would have considering they were brought up when we had Ashley stinking the place out. For Sesko, and any other player, the ultimate proof is in whether he joins in the end or not. Any player willing to commit a large part of their future here obviously does so because they’re convinced it will benefit them. And as said before, we shouldn’t be surprised to face stern competition for this type of player. I’d be more worried if we were after a lesser level of player who would genuinely be desperate to join a club like us.

The fact that I truly believe that the club will be much better off selling Isak next year (both financially and on the pitch) and the complete trust I have in Howe and the technical staff to make it work. Let it be known he can be picked up from next June onwards for anything over 120m and we’ll have the likes of Barcelona, Bayern and PSG at the table vying for his signature if he’s had a good season, which will be in his and out interest.

More nonsense. It’s all about the number. Replacements won’t come cheap and we have a squad to build if we want to continue to progress towards our objectives. There’s no way we’re letting Isak go for a penny less than out valuation. Not with 3 years left on his deal and with only a direct rival at the table. All I can say is I’m glad none of you are negotiating on our behalf. We hold all the cards yet most of you can’t wait to hand our world class striker over to a rival club for less than we’d consider good value ffs

Nonsense. Unless someone comes up with the magic number Isak is going nowhere this summer.

No top player is going to commit to the first club that comes calling without finding out who else may be in for them. We’ve bid the amount required to land a few great talents with them choosing to go elsewhere when other big clubs (capable of paying higher salaries) came sniffing. I can’t fault the club for aiming high, even if that means we may fail to land some/many of our targets. The speed at which deals get done is not within out control, not before we are a club young players dream of one day joining anyway.

Why does that make us look like dickheads? As Howe keeps pointing out, we’ve reached a level now where not many players improve us and naturally those players will be coveted by clubs that will be able to offer what we can (CL, being somewhat competitive on multiple fronts) and then some (wages above and beyond what we can afford due to FFP). We’ll have to sell the project as best we can and hope that appeals to some. So far it’s enabled us to land some pretty damn good players.

We shelled out 60m three years ago to bed in Isak when Wilson was still considered our main number 9. Worked out pretty well didn't it?

For one year aye, so we can bed in Isak's replacement without going backwards in terms of quality on the pitch in a crucial season upcoming. That would be the sensible thing to do if it doesn't prevent us from strengthening central midfield and defense.

Comes with the territory of competing with high profile clubs for high profile players, doesn’t it..? Better get used to it.

What Sesko mess?

I agree, but it’s selling the right players at the right time. Selling Isak now is neither the right player nor the right time, nor is selling to Liverpool the right move. It’s not the right player because we cannot replace him without risking serious repercussions to our upcoming season, where the aim should be to once again challenge for CL and go deep in the CL we qualified for to maximise revenue and exposure. It’s also not the right time, because we have time on our side. Isak is only 25, has three years left on his contract and prices continue to go up. There is every chance we’ll get more PSR toom from selling him next year, even if only because his remaining book value will have dropped by another 12m by then, ergo even if price remains the same our profit increases by waiting another year. Finally, selling to Liverpool is definitely not the right move. Our stated ambition is to challenge them, which is not going to be achieved by being coerced into selling them our best players. There is no reason whatsoever to feel pressured into selling unless someone puts in an offer way above our valuation for him that mitigates all of the above.

FFP rules have changed. Now also based as a percentage of revenue, so it’s not that simple.

I may be in the minority here, but I don’t really want us to go for Wissa unless we absolutely have to, which I would qualify as the Sesko deal falling through and/or a >150m bid coming in for Isak. To me Wissa is an insurance policy, a last resort kind of deal. Plan A should be to keep Isak for another year AND sign his successor this summer to bed him in for said year, if at all possible while also strengthening CM and CB. That may be mortgaging our future on an Isak sale in June, but it’s the sort of gamble that if it pays off sets us up for a really good season and another strong position for next summer.

Agree in principle. Would have preferred to flip e.g. Gordon though, but there’s a reason it will be world class Isak and not someone more easily replaceable that will have to fund stage two of the project.