Emotic

Silver lining is that Liverpool are as desperate for a striker this window as Isak is desperate to join them. If we make him stay, Liverpool might move for someone else (can't think of anyone else as good though), leaving them a little bit less inclined to stump up the cash we want come January or next summer.

I mean, I was referring to if the tweet from the journo was in any way close to the truth (that we're on the verge of signing Pavlidis). If so, it'd be a scoop and a half. And I'd be over the moon.

I wish I could trust an out-of-the-blue tweet from a Brazilian social media journalist about an agreement between an English club and a Portuguese club over a Greek striker, that nobody else has apparently been clued in on.

Romano and Ornstein will be "Liverpool confident of Isak deal with Newcastle signing his replacement! Isak only wants Liverpool!". Bet my life on it.

Use Isak as a makeweight. At this point I'd take Muani + 80 million Euros rather than sell Isak to Liverpool.

Isak with the bairns. Wissa for the League, Jackson in the FA Cup, Samu in the League Cup, Kolo Muani as a 10 behind Pavlidis in the Champions League, natch.

I'd love it if we could sign two strikers, and still afford to play him in the U21s for the next year as a power move and a "fuck you" to Liverpool. They'd probably then have to sign another striker instead of waiting for him too, leaving them out of the picture next summer.

Isak, Mitro, and Toney then. Love it and bring it on!

Pavlidis is a Mitro/Toney regen - pure power. Wissa and him and we'll have fun, Isak or no.

Imagine if that were true - a club using journalists to not just undermine a competing club to get their player on the cheap, but also using journalists to pretend that the competing club is signing a random player, so that the latter club would do so. It'd be the stuff of a fever dream if not for the insanity of the past three weeks making it so plausible.

Any two strikers out of Wissa, Kolo Muani, or Samu (or even Goncalo Ramos, Endrick, Woltemade), and Isak is definitely gone, IMHO. He only stays if we land Wissa and no-one else.

He "oNLy WaNts JuVE" apparently, but Juve are skint and nobody would touch Vlahovic with a ten-foot pole (and Vlahovic is on higher wages than Matt Targett). So they've been lowballing PSG. Waltz in with 50 million Euros and let PSG (and Muani) make a decision. Juve have threatened to walk away if they can't get him by 13th August (reportedly).

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/juventus-set-deadline-kolo-muani-135500941.html Maybe for once, Juve is being used to smoke out a higher offer from us instead.

Kolo Muani, alongside Nick Woltemade, is the most similar to Isak/Ekitike in style and characteristics. Skinny, dibbly, Thierry Henry-alikes. PSG bought him for 75+15 million Euros in 2023 though, how much would they want from him and what would his wages be?

Vlahovic is on 300k a week isn't he? Straight swap, him for Targett? Neither club loses out.

We've not been actively linked with Samu, iirc. Mentioned before that he reminds me very much of Taiwo Awoniyi at Forest, not technical enough for Eddie Howe and probably not good enough to justify his apparent 100 million Euro release clause (we were also linked with Awoniyi when he was scoring for fun at Union Berlin. Ever since, he has scored 17 in 72 matches for Forest). To our credit (although it has failed quite miserably), we've been attempting to sign strikers who are as "ready-made" for the PL as possible. But we found out to our surprise that sometimes, a Cup win, a fifth place, and a Champions League slot doesn't have quite the same pull when your competitors are Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal. I truly believe that our Tier 1 striker "list" was Pedro, Delap, Ekitike and at the bottom, in brackets, was Sesko. A seperate Tier 2 list to replace Wilson probably also, with Wissa and maybe Muniz. We've probably exhausted Tier 1 possibilities which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the Isak fiasco. And now we have to frantically regroup with three weeks left and without a recognised striker entering into the new season. It has become increasingly difficult, so a decision has to be made whether or not to just force Isak to stay and just spend on a Wilson replacement. Imagine a top-class striker being approached this late in the window, knowing that he'd be our fifth to sixth choice in the list. Imagine a selling club, this late in the window, knowing our desperation, and having no time to find a replacement. Logistically, it gets worse with each passing day. And don't forget we are suffering from not having a top-class negotiator who has the relationships with agents and clubs to make deals happen. The fanbase is only finding out just now. Isak staying, signing Wissa (not a given), and pursuing a CB and CM should be our path forward now. Everything else will be snubbed or us paying silly money for players we never prioritised. Get a CEO and Sporting Director with chops, and get some management structure in, consult with "Suds" Gopaladeskian, go again in January if Eddie can pull a miracle and have us competing by then.

If this were anywhere close to being true, we'd not be talking to Chelsea at all, and this is just us getting worked up over a very spurious rumour.

I suspect we just stuck a PIF intern in the Leipzig office so that it looks as if we haven't given up. And that means Manure can't haggle the price down in the absence of any competition. The minute we pull out, or sign another striker, then the haggling begins.

Offer Leipzig the money we are apparently willing to spend on Nicolas Jackson, then. 80 million pounds. Take it or leave it. If that doesn't get him, at least Leipzig can then demand the same from Manure.

If Jackson (who isn't scoring to his potential and is unwanted by his club) is 80 million quid, that makes Isak (who is at the peak of his game and is very much needed by his club), what, 200 million?

Bears repeating - "Utd"

I like Jackson but a) it’s a non-starter at 80 mil, and b) Jackson and Wissa means Osula as striker for up to 5 matches during AFCON.

So fraudulent that Xhaka had to escape to the fresh new pastures of Sunderland.