alexf

It's 6m less than they signed Wirtz for. Isak is a PROVEN bonefide number 9 in the premier league and you offer LESS. I'm not surprised our response may have been fairly emphatic.

It has all felt very back to front hasn't it? Need to know the full story but if Isak really wants to move and if Liverpool really wanted him. Surely everything should have been started the moment the season ended. The fact Isak waited til everyone already signed new strikers to announce he wants to leave and then for Liverpool to spend buckets full this summer including a lesser striker and someone we wanted that would have eased our stance on Isak before they even bid for him is just so bizarre. Something doesn't quite add up.

Would also suggest the max they are willing to go to is around £120m. I'd find that insulting of I was Isak. Like is this how much your new team value you? They preferred to spend more on less proven players from french and German leagues than to go all in to get you as their priority?

Would love to believe that. But it won't be true. Not unless we really have given a truly fuck off number to them and they were just chancing their arm. There's also a theory this was all designed to lay the ground work for a bid next summer and also to derail our summer and unsettle our best player. Also would give a bit of a "we tried" vibe to Isak and their fans. But no doubts they will be back in for him this window.

We'd also be losing any value from higher league finish this season and any potential progression in the champions league. Was reported Villa got upwards of £80m from having a good CL campaign last year. If we write off this season for the sake of £150m that profit will get eaten into by our underachievement this year in the league plus the added tax clubs will add to any players we want to sign in future. Plus we have a shit season and don't finish in European place then you have all our next tier of best players agitating for moves next summer...Tonali, Bruno, Gordon. And we won't be able to attract equal quality just like we can't this summer with Isak. This decision is going to set us back way further than people realise.

Again everyone keeps repeating but this is exactly what this behaviour is designed to do. Get fans pissed off to the point they just want rid and settle for less than worth just to get rid of the "hassle". You can't reward Isak and Liverpool and allow them to pull our pants down. Going into this summer we would all agree that of all the players we have Isak is the most irreplaceable and therefore the most valuable. He has 3 years left on contract and so even if we have to sell we can afford to wait until next summer to do so. There is zero benefit to the club to sell other than to avoid having a grumpy player. But again having a grumpy player who likely eventually will snap out of it and get his head down is better than having no fucker.

Hate to say it aswell but in that early flurry of the likes of Trippier, Bruno, Botman, Isak etc in the first season and half. There was a lot of buzz still around Newcastle and the takeover etc and players and agents were looking at us likely as his exciting project with huge money behind it. Despite the success Eddie has achieved, it feels he achieved a lot of it in spite of the increased wealth not because of it. It has became patently clear to most that are paying attention that there is far too many hurdles put in our way for us to be the next Man City or Chelsea and I think that means it's proving more difficult to sell the project to prospective players. Could be wrong but that's how this summer feels to me.

I'd love to believe the club have said one line and stuck to it all summer "not for sale". But that's just not gonna be the case is it? Too much smoke without fire and all that.

Need minimum striker and midfielder before we can even think about CB.

I've done fuck all work today. Need to get off the forum

The only thing I would saw about Liverpool is they have a lot of wonderful attacking players, especially if they get Isak. But they have signed two very attacking full backs. So will be interesting to see if they can get the balance of defence right. They are relying fully on Van Dijk again to hold it all down and I guess Gravenberch to mop up when everyone else plows forward. If I wasn't going to be desperately avoiding their games if Isak leaves, I'm sure they are going to be fun to watch as it seems they will just be trying to outscore teams. Isak with Salah and Wirtz supplying on paper suggests goals galore.

I mean looks as shite as he did at the end of season so far in the friendlies but it is only "preseason"

Surely the twitter twats and media are completely wrong about that narrative earlier of "if you sell us Isak for £120m then we won't take Ekitike from you" Because they signed him and then just came back and bid £100m+ for Isak anyways So either Liverpool are just mugging us right off or the twitter twats were just completely wrong as usual.

Sold for £90m last summer and by all accounts has been brilliant for atletico so yeah not happening. (Which is similar to what I would have said going into this summer about teams coming for Isak)

They beat Liverpool on penalties last year (Nunez missed the pen) and that's before they added wirtz, kerkez, frimpong, Ekitike and potentially Isak. Sure there's a chance in reality it takes time to click. But on paper it's a monster first 11 and they should be expecting to be winning the league and running psg and whoever super close for CL. Anyone should if they are splashing £400m+ on a squad that was already as good as it is.

He's average as fuck. This is the nightmare scenario that should never have been allowed to happen. We were supposed to have all the cards and be able to sell Isak on our terms and when it suits. You can't be scratching around two weeks before start of a season needing two new strikers and paying double their value because you're desperate.

It's really crazy like. Thing is they can probably still afford £150m and if I was them I'd do it. Adding him on to the squad they already have guarantees they will be close to winning the champions league and premier league ever year for the next few years atleast. Which will more than cover his fee. Once Salah leaves it's less guaranteed. But to take the best striker "available" ahead of all your rivals it seems like a no brainer. What doesn't make sense is our seemingly inevitable weakening of our position just because he's kicked up a fuss. Put it this way if he's at any of Man City Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. Do you think they sell to a fellow domestic club for any price? Let alone 120-130m when you have currently zero other senior strikers at your club 2 weeks before a season starts. It's madness from the club if we let him go.

Yeah anything in and around that £30m bracket and it's a sound investment and should be one of those opportunistic signings you make even if the squad doesn't necessitate it right now. Other clubs do it to us and we should be able to do the same to other prem teams without CL this year. However it's not gonna happen is it. Not when we still need 2 strikers, 2 midfielders and a CB. The transfer teams heads are probably spinning right now trying to multitask.

Dreading him banging in goals and everyone starts saying "bargain at £120m in today's market" Fuck off selling him cheap man. I wouldn't be selling him at all domestically unless it was £180m.

They (Liverpool) know what they are doing by the way. The timeline of this will have been all planned out and agreed with Isak. He will have known official bids will go in for him before he's expected back into training next week.

Yeah cus over paying massively for all those old players they keep signing for the Saudi league is great business negotiating.

This has a feeling of the Andy Carroll. I remember when the first bids of £30m were getting rejected and there were people on here going "get in Ashley keep knocking them back" only for hours later a few agreed for £35m and Ashley will chopper him in to Liverpool to make sure deal gets done in time. The negative of this is probably that we have given the green light for them to start bidding and just waiting to meet the fee we are happy to deal on. So sickening this whole thing and especially as we currently have Osula as our only ST

I mean he's basically admitted there then that mentally he had checked out a little and he was consciously not doing the things he's good at, closing down, working his bollocks off etc. I mean I'm glad he acknowledges what alot could see in how he was playing. But not sure if I like that he did it and lacked some professionalism. Especially as he's the type that seems to big himself up as having that ultimate drive and focus. Hopefully he can improve this year and put it behind him. Needs to improve his finishing however though aswell as getting back to giving his all for the shirt.

On paper maybe no, but he shut down massive revenue streams by starving us of sponsorships etc for paying nothing for sports direct. When you see the growth of teams around us at that time, Spurs probably the best example. Who are probably double our revenue before this take over or more which is likely worth £300-500m (more than our entire club was sold for) then I think you can equate that to "taking money out of the club" he stopped significant income for Newcastle for his own personal gain (Sports direct)

There's also a bit to mention. That if PIF don't take over when they did,we are 100% getting relegated in 2021/2022 under Bruce and Ashley and I don't know how we would have recovered from that point. We had a aging squad with the likes of Shelvey, Gayle etc probably the ones tasked with bringing us back. I think if we had suffered a 3rd relegation under Ashley at that point, which was a certainty if he hadn't left, I think it would have been the death of the club atleast for the next decade or so.