Alexander Isak - International C*nt

[Kooiman]

17 minutes ago, Magpie Mover said:

If we sell Isak it's definitely the end of the very few public promises that PIF made when they bought the club. You don't sell your best player to a club that you are hoping to compete with especially when you don't need to.

 

It's very hard to imagine that we won't be a much poorer team without him, whether we get Sesko and Wissa or not. Could be wrong though.

Yes and no.

 

At worst, they made promises without fully understanding the board game they were stepping into. I also think it’s unrealistic to expect any club to keep hold of all its top players. As long as clubs like Real Madrid exist, there will always be players who fancy a new challenge.

 

The core issue, though, is that we’re still playing catch-up to the top clubs. The days of overhauling a squad by signing 6-12 players in a single window are over. For us, this is a three-pronged evolution.

 

1. Revenue Growth

We’re still dwarfed by the big boys when it comes to revenue—whether that’s from competitions, player sales, or commercial deals. To bridge that gap, we need to keep scaling up and showing we can be “that club.” The rulings on third-party deals will either help or hinder us as time goes on. Manchester United have a noodle sponsor. We’ll need one too. It feels like we’ve made progress commercially, but there’s still a long road ahead.

 

2. The Playing Squad

The squad we inherited at takeover had very few, if any, sellable assets. We were forced into paying a premium on some deals just to stay in the league, and to the club’s credit, most of those players have proved to be solid investments.

It’s easy to forget, but before we sold Anderson and Minteh, we were seriously entertaining offers for Anthony Gordon. We don’t have a deep pool of high-value assets we can sell without weakening ourselves. We're building the plane as we fly it, which means sometimes the squad is growing at a faster rate than the infrastructure around it. That’ll smooth out in time, especially as we look abroad for players like the young Korean lad we’ve just signed. Minteh wasn’t necessarily part of that blueprint, but players like him will be.

 

3. The Academy

The academy is a potential cheat code for us. Under Mike Ashley, we lost several promising prospects—probably costing us £10-20m in potential sales. Since then, it looks like we’ve massively ramped up academy scouting and recruitment. Whether any of those players will break through is anyone’s guess, but it’s the first serious step towards building an elite academy.

This region is packed with talent. If we can establish ourselves as the destination for local prospects, it changes the equation. Look at clubs like Liverpool—selling Quansah for £30m creates a ripple effect. If we can start to replicate that, even on a smaller scale, it’ll massively improve our ability to retain our best players down the line.

[Optimistic Nut]

Just now, Palestoon said:

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?

 

 

More than likely just towing the line so he doesn't get fined. 

[TheBrownBottle]

4 hours ago, Unbelievable said:

Fine, he doesn’t have to sign it if he’s not willing to commit his future in order to earn what he believes he’s worth. I’d suggest that a 200m release clause for one of the best forwards in world football isn’t that far fetched though. In fact it’s what PSG did with Neymar 8 years ago already, with most clauses in Spanish football already eclipsing that nowadays.  

The clauses that eclipse that in Spanish football are down to national legislation, not an assessment of the real value of the player.  Isak isn’t worth £200m, no-one will come close to paying that, the player won’t sign it and we’re left in the same position.  
 

£150m - at a push - is the most we’ll get.  To have any chance of the lad signing on again the release clause will need to be realistically high.   Limiting it to a handful of European clubs might work if it’s sub-£150m.

 

All of this feels moot tbh.  We’ll sell to Liverpool once we’ve secured his replacement, and I’d be surprised if the fee doesn’t include a shitload of add-ons to get close to £150m

[TheBrownBottle]

37 minutes ago, Magpie Mover said:

If we sell Isak it's definitely the end of the very few public promises that PIF made when they bought the club. You don't sell your best player to a club that you are hoping to compete with especially when you don't need to.

 

It's very hard to imagine that we won't be a much poorer team without him, whether we get Sesko and Wissa or not. Could be wrong though.

As a massive critic of PIF, I don’t think this holds water.  Sometimes this happens - it happens to every big club.  I don’t think Liverpool wanted TAA to leave. 

[gdm]

2 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

As a massive critic of PIF, I don’t think this holds water.  Sometimes this happens - it happens to every big club.  I don’t think Liverpool wanted TAA to leave. 

Trent wouldn’t have been sold with 3 years left on his contract tho 

[gbandit]

Get out the club you little shit, you’ve ruined everything 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, gdm said:

Trent wouldn’t have been sold with 3 years left on his contract tho 

Probably not, but a big club doesn’t allow its best player to not be one of its higher earners and point to the remaining years in his contract.  This should’ve been sorted ages ago - what did they think would happen?

[BottledDog]

'kinnel. 

[gdm]

1 minute ago, gbandit said:

Get out the club you little shit, you’ve ruined everything 

I still can’t believe how sour it got so quickly. I wish him the worst 

[gdm]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Probably not, but a big club doesn’t allow its best player to not be one of its higher earners and point to the remaining years in his contract.  This should’ve been sorted ages ago - what did they think would happen?

He is one of our highest earners he just wants more and that’s fair enough. Mistakes were made our end but could have easily been sorted but he had his head turned 

[bobbydazzla]

He could have left on good terms with decorum and gone to a bigger club with his name cemented in our history books as a player who played a vital part in us breaking our trophy hoodoo 

 

Instead, he’ll be remembered as a massive cunt 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, gdm said:

He is one of our highest earners he just wants more and that’s fair enough. Mistakes were made our end but could have easily been sorted but he had his head turned 

The catastrophically slow reaction time of our ownership means it’s unlikely we’d have responded fast enough.  Funny though that other PIF football clubs don’t have to follow ‘the process’ and can give those scouse cunts the money they need in the middle of all this to get the PSR headroom + finance to seal this deal. 

[David Edgar]

Hope his legs fall off and he gets a permanent blink.

[bobbydazzla]

1 minute ago, David Edgar said:

Hope his legs fall off and he gets a permanent blink.

Hope his knob falls off and he gets permanent chalfonts 

[Superior Acuña]

Is the renewed anger based on that Anfield Wrap report of the agent? He's reliable..?

[oldtype]

In modern football, I think it just makes sense to not to get too emotionally tied up with players. Try not to fall in love with them too quickly, and try not to hate them too much when they inevitably make decisions to improve their income/career.

 

Support the shirt, not the player.

[Unbelievable]

18 minutes ago, Kooiman said:

Yes and no.

 

At worst, they made promises without fully understanding the board game they were stepping into. I also think it’s unrealistic to expect any club to keep hold of all its top players. As long as clubs like Real Madrid exist, there will always be players who fancy a new challenge.

 

The core issue, though, is that we’re still playing catch-up to the top clubs. The days of overhauling a squad by signing 6-12 players in a single window are over. For us, this is a three-pronged evolution.

 

1. Revenue Growth

We’re still dwarfed by the big boys when it comes to revenue—whether that’s from competitions, player sales, or commercial deals. To bridge that gap, we need to keep scaling up and showing we can be “that club.” The rulings on third-party deals will either help or hinder us as time goes on. Manchester United have a noodle sponsor. We’ll need one too. It feels like we’ve made progress commercially, but there’s still a long road ahead.

 

2. The Playing Squad

The squad we inherited at takeover had very few, if any, sellable assets. We were forced into paying a premium on some deals just to stay in the league, and to the club’s credit, most of those players have proved to be solid investments.

It’s easy to forget, but before we sold Anderson and Minteh, we were seriously entertaining offers for Anthony Gordon. We don’t have a deep pool of high-value assets we can sell without weakening ourselves. We're building the plane as we fly it, which means sometimes the squad is growing at a faster rate than the infrastructure around it. That’ll smooth out in time, especially as we look abroad for players like the young Korean lad we’ve just signed. Minteh wasn’t necessarily part of that blueprint, but players like him will be.

 

3. The Academy

The academy is a potential cheat code for us. Under Mike Ashley, we lost several promising prospects—probably costing us £10-20m in potential sales. Since then, it looks like we’ve massively ramped up academy scouting and recruitment. Whether any of those players will break through is anyone’s guess, but it’s the first serious step towards building an elite academy.

This region is packed with talent. If we can establish ourselves as the destination for local prospects, it changes the equation. Look at clubs like Liverpool—selling Quansah for £30m creates a ripple effect. If we can start to replicate that, even on a smaller scale, it’ll massively improve our ability to retain our best players down the line.

 

[David Edgar]

1 minute ago, Superior Acuña said:

Is the renewed anger based on that Anfield Wrap report of the agent? He's reliable..?

 

Sustained.

[Jesse Pinkman]

I hope he gets a horrible reception if he does move and shows up at St James in a Liverpool shirt.

 

We need to show we don’t accept

that shit. 

[gbandit]

1 minute ago, Superior Acuña said:

Is the renewed anger based on that Anfield Wrap report of the agent? He's reliable..?

It’s based on the fact he hasn’t said a word, he’s lied about an injury, he’s gone on strike without telling his manager and his agent and Liverpool are continually briefing the press stories to increase the likelihood that he leaves. He’s a fucking dickhead 

[KennyUtd]

I wish it was just done either way ffs. I'm spending far too much time checking N-O man. It's eating right in to my porn time.

[Optimistic Nut]

Just now, oldtype said:

In modern football, I think it just makes sense to not to get too emotionally tied up with players. Try not to fall in love with them too quickly, and try not to hate them too much when they inevitably make decisions to improve their income/career.

 

Support the shirt, not the player.

 

Yeah, sad reading people's view of the cup win being tainted because it's Isak & Liverpool. Nothing will ruin that moment and Isak will still be one of my all-time favourites. I hope he's fucking shite for Liverpool, though.

[gdm]

5 minutes ago, David Edgar said:

Hope his legs fall off and he gets a permanent blink.

I know it’s a bit taboo and lack of class to wish injury on a player but he deserves one for faking one the cunt 

[oldtype]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Yeah, sad reading people's view of the cup win being tainted because it's Isak & Liverpool. Nothing will ruin that moment and Isak will still be one of my all-time favourites. I hope he's fucking shite for Liverpool, though.

 

I just don't understand how people can be this miserable in general given that we just broke the trophy drought a few months ago. I used to think back in the Ashley days that I'd take the club going into administration and being relegated down to League 2 if it meant I could see us win a major trophy before I die.

[Elric]

17 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Get out the club you little shit, you’ve ruined everything 

 

Ah man that made me laugh so much, needed that

 

Edit: not that I disagree, he's fucked this whole summer (so far), the cunt. 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2025 by Elric