Alexander Isak - International C*nt

[Stottie]

It would be piss weak to lower the fee because the player has been unsettled (by rumours from the buyer). Every transfer bid ever made unsettles the player.  

 

As for players cracking on after bids, Kane, Gerrard, Suarez, ... It doesn't happen that often because the situation is nearly always the big fish eating the little fish.

This Isak situation is a huge fish trying to eat a slightly less huge fish. There are only a few precedents.

 

The "OMG he's so unhappy in his cage" story is coming from the same arseholes on Twitter. It is our choice to believe or not. It is also our choice whether to see ourselves as a slightly less huge fish or a little fish just making up the numbers and sitting there waiting to be preyed upon. I see no need for a club who've just won a cup and are in the CL, after coming close to finishing second, to dive into shit creek just because others are gaslighting us into thinking we're in there already.

[Ikon]

I don’t think Liverpool will bid. If they do I doubt it’s less than 130m in total. Why the fuck should we accept a fee around that, as in their first bid  Might as well put up a red “Cartel Charity” sign. It’s always at least 10-15% on top of the first bid. Never mind when there’s an extreme shortage when it comes to strikers of even near his ability and age. If Liverpool bid less than that then they are taking the piss and we should demand even more. 
 

If he’s their dream striker signing then pay up or fuck off. This isn’t a charity. It’s them and Isak/agent playing it ugly, why the fuck would we sell him for below market value because of this. I’m ok with Isak leaving, but I’m not ok with us bending over, never mind to Liverpool. 

[Holmesy]

Liverpool sold Coutinho to a more attractive club and rebuilt

Villa sold Grealish to a more attractive club and rebuilt

 

Whether it's Liverpool, Real Madrid or PSG, there will always be a bigger player courting our best players until we're consistently sat at that top table. It's frustrating as fuck but there's also a lot of personal bias at play in these discussions. We love the club, therefore everyone else should love it as much. It doesn't work like that.

Fuck him, if he wants to leave let him go - it won't define us, we'll keep moving forward. The only question mark is whether the recruitment team have the competence to spend the money, which at the moment looks like the biggest risk to this whole situation.

[NUFC_Chris]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

I don’t think it’s “weak mentality”. It’s trying to think about what is best for the TEAM. I don’t see any scenario with him staying that ends particularly well for the team.

 

I would rather we get an acceptable fee (we’ll have to debate what that figure is, because I do think £135m is fine, personally), and build on our squad of players who actually want to be here. 
 

Our success over the last few years has been down to Eddie and his knack of fostering an elite team spirit and mentality, even if only a handful of the players are actually elite. I’d hate for this whole situation to disrupt that when we can go on an build further.

Whilst I don’t disagree, we can’t afford to let him go without us signing a replacement first. We cannot enter a Champions League season with Osula and Neave as our recognised centre-forwards.

[alexf]

4 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Liverpool sold Coutinho to a more attractive club and rebuilt

Villa sold Grealish to a more attractive club and rebuilt

 

Whether it's Liverpool, Real Madrid or PSG, there will always be a bigger player courting our best players until we're consistently sat at that top table. It's frustrating as fuck but there's also a lot of personal bias at play in these discussions. We love the club, therefore everyone else should love it as much. It doesn't work like that.

Fuck him, if he wants to leave let him go - it won't define us, we'll keep moving forward. The only question mark is whether the recruitment team have the competence to spend the money, which at the moment looks like the biggest risk to this whole situation.

Coutinho left in what 2018? For £120m?

Grealish in 2020 for £100m? 

 

That would be the equivalent of people offering £200m-250m now in today's valuations. You don't turn down that money and neither would we. Both players went for way above their realistic valuations at the time. 

 

We're talking about Isak being sold for under his true valuation even with 3 years left on his deal just because he allegedly said he wants to explore options.

 

Nah. He stays unless the pay up what we value him.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by alexf

[Shadow Puppets]

6 minutes ago, NUFC_Chris said:

Whilst I don’t disagree, we can’t afford to let him go without us signing a replacement first. We cannot enter a Champions League season with Osula and Neave as our recognised centre-forwards.

I agree

[Sibierski]

Sounds like to me giving Eddies comments that it’s more likely Isak stays, and it’s in Isak control. He accepts a move is not there this summer, he can refuse contract extension and we revisit next summer if he still wants out. 

[Yorkie]

I think it's pretty difficult for us to avoid 'setting a precedent' when literally everything is stacked in the favour of those clubs operating without our constraints. If we can offer bigger wages, maybe, but we can't, because our revenues aren't high enough. And then the things (like Isak) which really help with revenue-building get snatched away.

[Holmesy]

2 minutes ago, alexf said:

Coutinho left in what 2018? For £120m?

Grealish in 2020 for £100m? 

 

That would be the equivalent of people offering £200m-250m now in today's valuations. You don't turn down that money and neither would we. Both players went for way above their realistic valuations at the time. 

 

We're talking about Isak being sold for under his true valuation even with 3 years left on his deal just because he allegedly said he wants to explore options.

 

Nah. He stays unless the pay up what we value him.

 

 

 

I totally agree with you on that front - he goes for what he's worth or above, or not at all. But my point is, if he goes, he goes. 
£120m is a joke for arguably the best striker in the world in his prime years. Pay up or fuck off. But if he does go, we shouldn't lose any sleep over it. What we should lose sleep over is the fact we'll still be sat on that money come January because our recruitment team couldn't negotiate a 10% discount at a Turkish market.

[ohmelads]

12 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

Good post… but I’m just struggling to think of any situation where a player has downed tools, then stayed at his club, and everything to have been fine afterwards. It might make us look strong to the football world, but does it actually help the team? I dunno 🤷‍♂️ 

 

I think players downing tools has become far less common in recent years though, hasn't it? I'm aware Wissa has done it this month, but not many other examples jump out to me. Players run the risk that if the move doesn't materialise, they've embarrassed themselves, hurt their image (or 'brand' in modern football terms) and have to either swallow their pride and graft again or double down and sit in the reserves, losing a significant chunk of their playing career. They also run the risk that potentially, a year down the line, the cartel clubs turn their interest elsewhere. 

 

I agree that Isak staying and not playing is a disastrous outcome for club and player, but in that scenario, it would guarantee no player will ever do it to us again. The cartel clubs like Liverpool would also know that they wrecked one summer for us, but they won't be able to do it again. 

 

If this happens, it'll be the biggest transfer story of the summer and remembered for years. If Liverpool get him on faviurable terms, the dominos will fall for us and we'll have this in January and next summer with our other stars.

[JT24]

It would be incredibly stupid to let him leave BEFORE a "replacement" is signed.

[Ben]

Just now, JT24 said:

It would be incredibly stupid to let him leave BEFORE a "replacement" is signed.

 

I would sign both those players and keep Isak until next summer.

[alexf]

He hasn't even come out to confirm or deny the quotes that he wants to leave.

 

So it will be incredibly easy for them to PR this with a straight bat if he stays. 

 

"Alex had an injury as we announced and unfortunately couldn't join the preseason tour. But he's been working hard back at the training ground to recover quickly and is hopeful of being fit for the start of the season. Alex is aware of the speculation around him but just wants to focus on his football." 

 

There. easy as that.  

[ohmelads]

1 minute ago, Holmesy said:

I totally agree with you on that front - he goes for what he's worth or above, or not at all. But my point is, if he goes, he goes. 
£120m is a joke for arguably the best striker in the world in his prime years. Pay up or fuck off. But if he does go, we shouldn't lose any sleep over it. What we should lose sleep over is the fact we'll still be sat on that money come January because our recruitment team couldn't negotiate a 10% discount at a Turkish market.

 

Agree. We should set a non-negotiable price with a hard deadline. Once it's passed, communicate to the media that the matter is done from our side and sll further communication will be internal.

 

Other clubs aren't rolling over and letting us have their players. 

[gdm]

19 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Liverpool sold Coutinho to a more attractive club and rebuilt

Villa sold Grealish to a more attractive club and rebuilt

 

Whether it's Liverpool, Real Madrid or PSG, there will always be a bigger player courting our best players until we're consistently sat at that top table. It's frustrating as fuck but there's also a lot of personal bias at play in these discussions. We love the club, therefore everyone else should love it as much. It doesn't work like that.

Fuck him, if he wants to leave let him go - it won't define us, we'll keep moving forward. The only question mark is whether the recruitment team have the competence to spend the money, which at the moment looks like the biggest risk to this whole situation.

How are we going to rebuild when in PSR terms we stlll owe tens of million on Isak, RS get a percentage of the fee and it’ll cost about £100m to replace Isak. 
 

times have changed it’s not comparable to Coutinho or Grealish at all. We can’t buy 5 or 6 players with that money 

[Lush Vlad]

1 hour ago, Shadow Puppets said:

We won’t get more than that, and I really think we’re deluded if we think we’re going to get more. The player is essentially on strike.

 

This situation is paralysing the club. Just rip the fucking band aid off and move on. £135m is a realistic figure (ideally more but unlikely).

So fuck. 
 

So any player in the future can go on strike and it means we will sell them for well below what they are worth to us and also what is below their market value.
 

When comparing to other players in his position and also similar’ish fees paid in recent times. That would be a shit deal. What’s he going to do? Refuse to play all season and lose loads of money? Buy out his contract? No way we should be selling him at a low price. 
 

Our negotiating team have been awful all summer and can’t get much worse. But I’m glad you’re not involved  

[Kimbo]

I don’t see the urgency to sell. Players have had to stay a season or more at a club after deciding they want to leave plenty of times, including Suarez and Gerrard at Liverpool. Obviously we shouldn’t threaten a players family as Liverpool fans did with Gerrard though.

 

We’re not getting a suitable replacement IMO (Sesko won’t happen), and Liverpool won’t bid enough (they haven’t even bid at all yet and are clearly desperate to drive the price down). Isak and Liverpool fucked this by leaving it so late in the window and by buying our replacement. So IMO they should have to wait until next summer.

[KennyUtd]

3 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

So fuck. 
 

So any player in the future can go on strike and it means we will sell them for well below what they are worth to us and also what is below their market value.
 

When comparing to other players in his position and also similar’ish fees paid in recent times. That would be a shit deal. What’s he going to do? Refuse to play all season and lose loads of money? Buy out his contract? No way we should be selling him at a low price. 
 

Our negotiating team have been awful all summer and can’t get much worse. But I’m glad you’re not involved  

He's right though. This whole situation is dragging the club down. We need to get rid and quickly if he's definitely intent on going. Just so we can concentrate on quality incomings. I agree about getting as much as possible but we're the ones  who valued him at £150 million. Get at least £135 million and move on. 

[Holmesy]

1 minute ago, gdm said:

How are we going to rebuild when in PSR terms we stlll owe tens of million on Isak, RS get a percentage of the fee and it’ll cost about £100m to replace Isak. 
 

times have changed it’s not comparable to Coutinho or Grealish at all. We can’t buy 5 or 6 players with that money 

What's the alternative? Hang on to a player who doesn't want to play for us?

If we can get in 4-5 quality additions with the Isak money plus what we already have available, we'll be net ahead of where we are now, and it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Wissa scored 4 fewer PL goals than Isak last season, and i'm pretty sure he cost £10m. Mateta scored 16 goals and he cost circa £10m. The problem isn't spending the money and rebuilding right now, it's our scouting team's ability to find value, and our manager's obsession with signing expensive players from the PL, hence the comment about still sitting on the money in January.

[KennyUtd]

2 minutes ago, Kimbo said:

I don’t see the urgency to sell. Players have had to stay a season or more at a club after deciding they want to leave plenty of times, including Suarez and Gerrard at Liverpool. Obviously we shouldn’t threaten a players family as Liverpool fans did with Gerrard though.

 

We’re not getting a suitable replacement IMO (Sesko won’t happen), and Liverpool won’t bid enough (they haven’t even bid at all yet and are clearly desperate to drive the price down). Isak and Liverpool fucked this by leaving it so late in the window and by buying our replacement. So IMO they should have to wait until next summer.

That's all fair like. 👍

[LFEE]

13 minutes ago, gdm said:

How are we going to rebuild when in PSR terms we stlll owe tens of million on Isak, RS get a percentage of the fee and it’ll cost about £100m to replace Isak. 
 

times have changed it’s not comparable to Coutinho or Grealish at all. We can’t buy 5 or 6 players with that money 

Technically we’ve already got similar money now that Isak would bring yet unable to sign who we want. Not sure why people think selling Isak would open the floodgates for players coming in. The cartel will still want the players we would be after and those in the UCL.

[Loki679]

Keep him another season.  It's late to get a replacement in now and we're struggling in the market as it is.  Even if we get another striker now it'll take a whie for them to bed into the squad and get used to the system.  Plus the fact that keeping him another season knocks another £12m off his cost on the books so when we get the same fee for him next summer (and we will), it's all extra gravy for us.

[GeordieToon]

https://www.football365.com/news/alexander-isak-al-hilal-abusive-relationship-john-nicholson

 

Alexander Isak offer from Al-Hilal is evidence of ‘abusive relationship’

 

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund Have royally screwed us.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by GeordieToon

[Holmesy]

4 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Technically we’ve already got similar money now that Isak would bring yet unable to sign who we want. Not sure why people think selling Isak would open the floodgates for players coming in. The cartel will still want the players we would be after and those in the UCL.

There's plenty of value out there - look at Tonali, Bruno, Hall, Livra. We need better scouting and player recruitment, not consistently going head-to-head with the cartel. It was a ridiculous strategy to begin with. Ok, maybe we didn't know they were going to go after the same players as us, but our list appears to be so small that we've backed ourselves into a corner. There really is no excuse. We've had 18 months to plan for this window and we look like fucking amateurs because of our lack or work and flexibility around targets.

[Paully]

I think they’ll bid today