Palestoon

The logic behind Leipzig accepting less is that they are probably happy with both offers. Would they prefer the Newcastle offer? Yes, but 90 vs 85 mil euros are both above their valuation and if the player says he prefers Manu then they might just be forced to accept that. Id bet the delay is probably Leipzig threatening Manu that they have a better offer, and Manu banking on the fact the player will push that they take thier offer. I doubt Manu will back out of the deal over 5 million euros. They're just trying to get a bit of a discount if possible

Agreed, players emotions get so overblown by fans. This is a business for them. These guys get paid ludicrous amounts to play a game with their friends. The idea that Isak will wake up raging every morning that hes a newcastle player is ridiculous. He'll get over it and get back to what hes done for the last 10 years of his life. Play football and try and score goals

Exactly. Theirs no reason to rush selling him this summer and scramble around after we've lost out on all of our top targets. The only caveat to that is if hes privately made it known, or the club feel he will be a daily problem. And i just don't think that's his personality. It's one thing to listen to your agent telling you to miss training. Its another to show up to work every day and antagonize your teammates/coaches

A few weeks ago Milan were desperate to get rid and accepted a 20 mil pound offer but the player refused. We step in now after hes looked good in preseason and is a big part of Milans plans? This summer is a disaster

He's handled this like a prick no doubt, but the reality is up until now, all that's been public is that he wants to "explore" his options, and that he's missed the tour with an "injury". I think we can all read between the lines, but the key point is he hasn't gone scorched earth claiming he'll never play for the club again. and he's already been back to the training ground while the rest of the squad have a couple of days off. Point being theirs a part of him that is still aware that he may be here whether he likes it or not. At this point, theirs almost no reasonable scenario where selling him this summer is going to be good for the club. Sit him down, and work something out for this season. Close the book for this summer. Get Wissa, and strength the rest of the squad. If their are opportunities to get high value targets now, spend some of next summers Isak money. We'd be in a good position to have another great season. Deal with Isak start of next summer. On the other hand, if he is burning his bridges and being a complete cunt with the manager and teammates, causing turmoil... then that's another matter altogether. I think we'll get some clarity starting tomorrow

I think we probably offered the extra 5 mil to try and push Leipzig to force Sesko to make a decision before manu made their move

Not that I disagree. I think we're selling Isak if Sesko comes in. I just dont understand why we dont sit Isak down, tell him he's staying for another season, heres a bumper contract. He can link up with another great striker on the books and attack this champions league season. Or he can sulk around and go next summer on his current wage. What are the terrible downsides to this scenario? I can think of many upsides

Agreed, we need to br proactive not reactive. Why not? We have the opportunity to have 2 of the most coveted striker in world football. Why not see where that takes us this season and revisit the Isak question next summer with 2 years left on his contract. So what if we get 100 mil instead of 130 million...

Do we read anything into the fact that he turned up to the training ground alone today to get "treatment" on his thigh? Could be trying to ease his way back in before he returns with tge squad on Tues/Wed?

That was the plan coming into this summer apparently. All the noise from the media sounds like its to facilitate his move. Maybe that's all it is though, media speculation. I think we'll know this week one way or another

It's not losing the player that's a problem for me. It's how its happening. The stand needs to be made on principle, not out of desperation to keep a player that doesn't want to be here

All of that may be true, but at the end of the day, we need to be able to deal with the discomfort and pressure, if we want to establish ourselves as a top club. Manu dealt with it with Rooney, Liverpool with Gerrard and Suarez, and Spurs with Kane. Im sure it was awkward and destabilizing, but all of those clubs understood that it was more important to establish deterence than it was to alleviate a headache. You do not sell your best player to a domestic rival. Period It's so destructive to your image as a club. We have a a fantastic manager and a unified dressing room full of great characters and leaders. Their is no imminent financial need to sell the player this summer. We can wait to sell him next year for a similar fee, and still strengthen the squad. Go out and get an insurance striker, sign a couple of players, and let Isak know the door is open for him to join this great squad getting ready to embark on a champions league campaign, or rot on the bench and go next year at the beginning of the summer. Some of us are stuck in the mike Ashley era. We're not a mid table club stuck in a cycle of recycling players and going again. We're an ambitious club looking to grow and challenge at the top, and we need to start acting like it. Im pessimistic we actually will, but there's no reason we shouldn't. We just need to adopt the mentality and go with it. Their are no doomsday outcomes of holding him another season no matter what all of the sky six media tell us

Funny... both of our striker targets are coming according to major/reputable news papers in their respective home countries. Yet we're waiting for some cunt Twitter journo in Italy to give us a "here we go" So tired of these modern transfer windows

I don't think its necessarily about certain players, its more about the image as the club as a whole. The world is watching, and I think we can really set down a marker with, current players, future players and clubs around the world. We should have a rep that we are very difficult to deal with. Otherwise everyone will think if they unsettle our player, that we'll eventually buckle. Set the precedent now. Even if it means he hangs around for another season. Which im not even convinced isn't the best scenario anyway for the club short and long term

I hope that's the case brother. Just want us to be proactive rather than reactive. There's no reason we shouldn't be doing what's in the clubs best interest first and foremost.

Just a feeling. Could be totally off base, but the vibes im getting is we expect him to go. Clubs that really don't want to sell aren't as active in the market as we are. Think about it, we're now on our 4th choice striker of the summer. And if hope is right, we'll move onto our 5th in Ramos if Sesko rejects us. That's not how clubs who are comfortable with a player staying behave. We would have simply told Liverpool/Isak, sorry, we lost out on our priority targets (one you hijacked from us) Isak is staying. Instead it looks like we're desperately trying to bring his replacements in so we can green light the move. Hope im wrong, and the Club is looking to strengthen rather than replace but I doubt it. Time will tell

This is about the only scenario I can somewhat stomach. Both players in, signed sealed and delivered, and we force Liverpool to pay through the roof. Unfortunately I don't think that will be the case. Feel like we'll bring in a striker, sell Isak in 130 range, and then scramble around til the end of the window trying to bring in another. Hope im wrong

Exactly, selling this summer has so many downsides and very few positives. Wheras putting our foot down and holding him for another season looks like exactly the opposite

Why not do that next summer? We keep Isak for another season Bring in his replacement as an understudy/back up. Prepare during the season for our plans with the money with a new CEO and director of football in place. Why are we bending to liverpools and Isaks will right now? What benefit is in that for us to make rushed decisions in a summer that has clearly proven we weren't ready for?

Exactly, use the situation to our advantage now. Use the money to get in a few big peices AND keep isak. Try to go for it now and have another big successful season to further cement ourselves. It's puts us in the best position now, and in the long term

For what its worth, Ornstein said he'd be returning to the UK and Will resume training at Newcastle united

Agree 100 percent. But we are in a position right now to fight back. Im still waiting for a reason why one of these scenarios is not the best course of action. A. Keep Isak and sign an experienced back up (Wissa) B. Keep Isak and sign his successor (Sesko) Sell him next season once we're actually prepared for his departure. He's not going to sit out the season, he's not going to cause chaos in the dressing room. He will still be considered a world class forward next summer.

Anyone arguing that selling Isak, even for 150 mil this summer is anything but a capitulation is living in la la land. Regardless of what replacements we get in. We came into this summer telling everyone, this is our summer to really step up and show we belong. We stated publicly on many occasions we are looking to keep Isak AND sign another big name striker along with strengthening other key positions. Liverpool came in and said, no you're not getting that 2nd big name striker. We're taking him... and you know what, we are going to take the one you have as well. Like it or not, we are being bullied, and if we accept an offer, we are in essence accepting the place these cunts are putting us in. That's not to say theirs isn't a scenario where this works out for us in the long term. It's just that at this point, theirs no arguing its a huge blow for this season. And for our image as a football club.

I'm not convinced the current state of our recruiting team is capable of pulling off 4 deals in the next few weeks. Not to mention, the fact that we'd be dealing with the complications of teams trying to hold us to ransom with all of the Isak money in our pockets, the fact that at this point in the summer, teams will need to find replacements before they sell, and the fact that most of our top targets have already moved on. Just dont see the harm in getting another year out of Isak, letting Sesko (If he comes) bed in slowly, get our backroom set up in order, and then sell him next summer with a plan in place to re-invest properly.

Has anyone actually presented a realistic scenario by which selling Isak for any amount of money this window makes sense from strictly a "what's best for the club" perspective? Outside of the fact people are sick of him Even if we bring in Sesko, and you look at all of the possible outcomes, the best one for the football club still seems to be to hold onto Isak for another year regardless. What do we really risk forcing him to play another season here and letting him move next summer? If reports are true and he's planning to train when the team arrives back, he's clearly still planning for remaining as one of the options. He may be sulky? so what, guy is a professional, and we've seen this scenario play out with other players before. He will want to preform, and its in the best interest of himself, and the club that he does, and they will both make whatever concessions are needed to make that happen. Worst case scenario, he's not up for it 100 percent, we have insurance in Sesko, and we can still sell him in January or the summer for a huge sum. Barring some sort of catastrophic injury, we will still fetch 100 mil+ easily for him by next summer. He will be an elite, 26 yr old striker with 2 years left on his contract. He'll have plenty of suitors. This scenario also has an outcome (although small) that is probably the best we could imagine. Isak and Sesko form a dynamic duo, and we make a deep push in the champions league and contend at the top of the table. Summer comes around and Isak has a change of heart, or if he still wants to go, we get big money for him with Sesko still on the books. Selling him now presents so many more potential negative outcomes. Even with Sesko or Wissa or even both, you're not upgrading your starting striker spot this season. Sesko is an unproven 22 yr old coming from a league that has produced plenty of flops in England. And Wissa, although a much safer bet has only scored at an elite level for 1 season pushing 29 yrs of age. On top of that, both will be joining at virtually the start of the season with almost no time to get acclimated to the system, and the players around them. Its a very reasonable assumption that we struggle to get both of them up to speed for a few months, and by that time we severely damaged our season. I hope the club are thinking along the same lines. Its not as if we don't have the money already without an Isak sale to solidify our other positions to fill (CM,CB). Money for him this season or next season shouldn't have a long term effect on our finances either way. But a capitulation on the global football stage followed by a sub-par season could be disastrous for the clubs long term outlook.