Palestoon

It's a mentality problem that's been driven into our, and every other clubs/fans heads for years. Liverpool want Isak and Ekitike? "Real statement of Intent" Newcastle want Sesko and keep hold of Isak "surely he's a replacement since Liverpool want Isak" Everyone outside of the big 6 are "reactive" in their moves. Surely Newcastle don't have the audacity to actually want to BUILD on their squad? No, Liverpool have pointed out Isak for their special, divinely appointed project, and now Newcastle need to ask them to please be patient while we try to find a replacement first... sick of it. And you listen to Downie and Hope, and again it's just assumed we're going let Isak go if we get Sesko. As if it's the only possible scenario. And maybe they're right, but I have a little bit of hope that PIF don't and aren't thinking like that. We're not just trying to solve the Isak "problem" and that were actively looking to make a statement. Time will tell

The story was, we were looking for someone to play alongside Isak... Would love it if we brought in Sesko, got Liverpool excited and then told them to fuck off again.

Interested to see if we become more willing to negotiate if Sesko comes in. Would the 150 mil evaluation come down to 130? Would love to see us hold him to another year regardless

I think with today's news, we can all atleast rest easy that the club won't be taken for mugs. Sounds like their are 2 scenarios... IF we find 2 strikers we are happy with AND you cunts want to pay 150 mil, he can fuck off. Otherwise, we expect him back in training next week, and have confidence the player will reintegrate and do the job this season. Im OK with either

This is it. Liverpool probably enquired in early June. Got a firm no. Saw us going after Ekitike who was probably one of their secondary options. They needed to make sure they ended up with one of the two, but they wanted to see if they could use the Ekitike situation to change our stance on the player leaving. So they went public with "Want Isak #1 target, will leave Ekitike alone if Newcastle open to selling" We told them to fuck off, and they moved for Ekitike because they couldn't take the risk of us signing him, and still refusing to sell Isak. Since then, they've just sat in the background and let Isaks agent do the dirty work. They know he wants to come, but they are not desperate for him. Let the media circus fester, and they try again later with a low ball (which we just witnessed) hoping we buckle from all of the pressure. If not, they move forward with what they have and focus on other areas

I think what our transfer business looks like in the next few days will say alot. If we're still seeing constant links with Sesko, Jackson, Watkins. It may mean door is still open if certain conditions are met (replacements/meeting valuation. If we focus on Wissa, and getting a CM and CB... it would signify the club have drawn a line under it and are moving forward with him being here for this upcoming season

35 mil for dibling is a no-brainer

Its quotes like this that make me feel we're missing some major fallout behind the scenes. Even at this time, everyone was gagging over him calling him better than Haaland. And this is coming off a season where we didn't look like gaining CL football. He would have known the big "big clubs" would be sniffing if he made it known he wanted to leave. He could have easily given more diplomatic statements to leave the door open. Something changed last summer. Whether it's the contract talks not coming to fruition, the changes at the top of the hierarchy, or lack of transfer "ambition," the relationship between player and club broke down. You don't go from, "im here for the long term project", "I love it here", "this is my home" to going on strike the minute a team shows interest. It's not like he was a nobody last season, and suddenly clubs are becoming interested that he never dreamed of. His trajectory was clearly to the very top if he wanted. Or maybe im being naive, and footballers are just mercenaries who'll say whatever and jump at the first opportunity But something feels missing from this story

I don't think anyone's really to blame here, except maybe the ownership for not being decisive. Remember when Howe first showed up their was a huge vacuum in terms of leadership at the club. Howe had to step in with Staveley and wear several hats. Thing was, they took the club from relegation certs to champions league finish in a year and half. It wasn't really planned for the club to be structured that way, but who could argue that how they operated wasn't working? And why would Howe feel the need to cede any decision making to anyone else? This probably was the reason ashworth, and then Mitchell didn't last. They come from more continental style set up, and probably found it hard to do their job in the way they were used to. And Howe had so much credit in the bank, along with his relationship to staveley, that any DOF would have to take a secondary role. Hence both of them leaving. All probably believed they were doing what was in the best interest of the club. But until the ownership makes it clear what the structure of the clubs hierarchy is, we'll continue to have this issue. I personally don't have a problem either way, I just want the club to committ to a vision and stick to that set up and ensure it's working optimally

Not unprecedented that he's off training alone. When Maxi would get hurt, Howe would let him travel back to France to recoup. Could see the club sanctioning it, telling him to get away and get his head cleared. Most interesting part is it's referencing that he's recovering from an injury...

Could just be how things are being reported in the media, and I hope that's the case, but feels so defeatist from the club. Rather then "he's not for sale, we expect him to report for training when we get back. We'll let you know when we're done with our summer business, and if you want to knock our socks off with a bid, we'll consider it if it works for us..." Feels more like "OK we'll let you go, but please be patient, we're trying to find a replacement. And if not you might have to stay for another year " Where is the strong stance from the club?

Yea, and I feel like I remember at the beginning of last season Howe and some others around the club hinting that he did a hell of a job keeping the dressing room together. And i remember thinking "about what?" at the time. Then their were the rumors around Gordon, and I recall Longstaff in an interview saying the summer had been uncertain for a lot of players or something to that effect. Add in reports of the new hierarchy renegging on Isak contract promise. Who knows the truth, but it sounds like the PSR fiasco in June, Stavely leaving, poor window might have created some cracks that were covered well by Howe and the great season we had.

Well then they better find 2 forwards and fast or the season will be over before it starts

Looks like he's our best option for getting in someone who can hit the ground running while Isak wraps his head around the fact he's here for another year and gets back to business.

If the Athletic article is true, looks like it's the worst case scenario of how we got here. Mismanagement from the club and player being a cunt. Makes sense as to why we pushed so hard for a big time striker earlier in the window. We've been aware he's wanted to leave all of this time and have been hedging our bets. He was probably told to wait until we have his replacement and felt like it wasn't going to happen so he forced our hand.

I just hate that the club aren't taking ownership over the narrative. Almost feels like we're waiting for Liverpool to bid, or for Alex to realize he's wrong and come home.

Really is baffling. All we've heard from Alex, and insiders at the club for the last year or so was that he was happy, and they were confident in keeping long term and had no plans to sell. One rumor comes out that Liverpool prefer him to Ekitike, and he's faked an injury, refused to train. And heading back of to Sweden? We haven't even received a bid yet, and we're unsure if we can keep him? Crazy how much changed in a 2 weeks time

Something about this whole saga stinks. I get it, players want to move on to other clubs, happens every summer. But the speed at which the whole thing has deteriorated makes no sense. And if Isak is really going scorched earth it lends to us missing something from this picture. Might be the contract talks being pulled back, or maybe we had an agreement to let him go earlier and it never materialized? The reaction from his camp seems too extreme to simply be liverpool are interested and I'd like to go. Doesn't change the fact that he's behaving like an absolute prick

With all due respect, fuck this small time mentality of "he's unhappy so we have to let him go" no we don't. If we want to compete at the highest level, we need to get used to big clubs wanting our players. Capitulating at the first sign of pressure sets an unacceptable precedent. Isak is not going to sit out a season. When has a player in their prime ever done that before? If he really wants a move to one of the elites, he knows he needs to keep his levels up. He scored 6 goals for Sociadad before we bought him for 70 mil. Even if he has a sub par season, someone will still pay 100 mil for him easily. He doesn't want to be here long term? Fine. Playing another season for this great club isn't a favor, it's a privilege. Then in early June, he can fuck off, and hopefully we'll have a CEO and director of football who've planned for the inevitability. Selling him now is writing off the season. Even if this board shocks us and signs replacements, the chance that they are as effective as Isak or don't take months to get acclimated are close to zero. We don't need to sell and we shouldn't under these circumstances. Should be end of discussion

Sounded good until that last line. Is he referring to the ownership having the final say?

I know I've said it before, but this really feels like a sliding doors moment for the "project." I really hope everyone from Howe to Yasir at the very top are seeing this summer as the wake up call it appears to be. Despite our recent success, we aren't an "elite" club yet. And until we get the proper infrastructure in place, and make big moves to in revenue, we will stay that way. Eddie can't work miracles forever, and eventually, unfortunately money talks. The current summer has been a disaster, and because of that, I don't think we should sell Isak for any amount. The path forward now should be completely closing the door and letting him know he's here for another year period. Spend the next few weeks getting 3 realistic bodies through the door. Something like Wissa, Gallagher, and a young pacy CB. Is it the flashy summer we'd all have hoped for? No, but I don't think anyone would argue those 3 through the door plus Elanga and Ramsdale isn't a huge improvement on last year's squad, in terms of depth and addressing our major weaknesses. From there, spend the season getting our hierarchy up to snuff and deal with this issue next summer. I fear selling Isak at this point in the summer, even for something like 150 mil carries huge risks. I don't think anyone has confidence that the current set up will be able to spend the money wisely in time for the season. We'd be stuck with probably having to pay over the odds for 3rd and 4th choice targets with most of our primary targets unavailable, and clubs knowing we have the Isak money along with our desperation to make moves before the deadline. We could have a very realistic scenario where the team is weaker this season, we struggle with champions league schedule and finish at the back end of the top 10. Then we'd have a similar scenario to this summer with our top players looking to leave, and all of the hard work undone. Basically back to square one. A club capable of having a great season if everything falls into place, but not at the table with the "big boys" This decision is more than just replacing a player, or transfer kitty's. It's about our image as a club and the statement we make to the league about where we belong. Will be an interesting few weeks regardless

All the journos were reporting they'd only bid if we changed our stance on him not being for sale....

This is another strange piece of the puzzle. A lot of it seems out of absolutely nowhere. 2 months ago even the biggest sky 6 knob lickers were saying Isak leaving after we qualified for champions league was a pipe dream. And if its true that Isak felt he'd outgrown us, and wanted to make the next calculated step of his career, these kind of moves are greased well in advance. We'd have heard chatter from Romano and the twitter mafia that he was looking at other options. Instead, its radio silence, and then suddenly he's desperate to leave? could just be he was waiting for the right club to show interest, but still seems like we're missing a lot of the context here.

I'm of this line of thinking as well. I think this has all been orchestrated with Isak's agent, liverpool, and their contacts in the media. We said not for sale, Liverpool got wind that Isak is open to the move, and they devised a plan to go full press in the media, Alex to sit out a pre-season tour with an injury, and see if we crack from the pressure. Hopefully we ride this out and carry on as usual. Notice nothing from Isaks camp about not playing for Newcastle again, or threatening a strike like we saw from Wissa at Brentford. Think they know if this fails he'll have to return with his tail between his legs. They porbably thought the injury story would protect his rep while they try this tactic, but it looks like its backfired.

"We will only bid if you give us the ok to" "We are not ok with it, dont bid he's not for sale" "OK we will bid, let us know how you feel about it, we're trying to be respectful" Ridiculous