Alexander Isak

[Facundo Ferreyra]

14 minutes ago, xLiaaamx said:

Bird says no work permit or international clearance yet

 

What a cunt 

[Optimistic Nut]

Isak inside left, Maxi moved to the right, Wilson through the centre?

[Optimistic Nut]

3 minutes ago, HTT II said:

He was underrated in the air, scored a few from memory. Deft little headers not powering ones, Owen was similar. 

 

Owen's timing was exceptional.

[Guest HTT II]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Owen's timing was exceptional.

Aye, if he wasn’t made of glass and had a better attitude he’d have been a generational player and scored many way more goals than he did, and he scored a few.

[madras]

4 minutes ago, HTT II said:

He was underrated in the air, scored a few from memory. Deft little headers not powering ones, Owen was similar. 

He wasn't underrated though. He just wasn't very good, he scored some, usually from a max 6yds when unmarked. That's doesn't mean he was good at them.

[Guest HTT II]

1 minute ago, madras said:

He wasn't underrated though. He just wasn't very good, he scored some, usually from a max 6yds when unmarked. That's doesn't mean he was good at them.

That’s a skill in itself, he scored loads of deft little headers by good movement and timing. Look at Wood 6.3 and pretty mediocre in the air. People think big lad, should be scoring loads of headers.

[The College Dropout]

2 hours ago, Rafalove said:

 

 

Found this in Reddit 

Basically played RW here.

[madras]

4 minutes ago, HTT II said:

That’s a skill in itself, he scored loads of deft little headers by good movement and timing. Look at Wood 6.3 and pretty mediocre in the air. People think big lad, should be scoring loads of headers.

Yeah it's a skill. It's like me scoring with my right foot, which I did, but it was definitely a weakness and it certainly wasn't underrated even at that level.

[The College Dropout]

Athletic article suggests the deal was done in a matter of days after 3-3. I am posting this as a bit of a "I told you so".

 

 

https://theathletic.com/3540281/2022/08/26/alexander-isak-newcastle-transfer-record/

 

 

"

It was a player Newcastle had initially thought was beyond them given Real Sociedad’s exorbitant demands. But, following the pulsating 3-3 draw with Manchester City, Newcastle’s decision-makers were present on Tyneside.

Alongside the head coach at St James’ Park were the sporting director Dan Ashworth, the head of recruitment Steve Nickson, the new CEO Darren Eales, Eddie’s nephew and head of technical scouting Andy Howe and, most significantly, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chairman and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Having witnessed Callum Wilson finish the game early because of yet another injury, Isak was identified as the solution to the club’s attacking shortcomings and sources indicate that greater funds were made available.

 

The six-year deal for Isak was concluded at a rapid pace, despite months of declared interest previously leading to minimal progress.

 

Ashworth is believed to have re-engaged with Sociedad late on Monday evening, with an offer thought to be lower than one tentatively proposed last month. Jokin Aperribay, Sociedad’s president, admitted on Movistar TV that, “On Sunday, we did not expect Isak to leave,” but the player’s representatives informed the club 24 hours later of the forward’s desire to join Newcastle.

Though Newcastle’s first bid was rejected immediately, it reopened lines of communication and, to show they were serious about reaching an agreement this time, by Tuesday Ashworth was in the Basque country, accompanied by Nickson.

 

Only a handful of people around the club knew a delegation had flown out to hold in-person discussions for Isak, with most still assuming Watford’s Pedro was the top target.

 

The transfer advanced so quickly that Isak trained with Sociedad on Wednesday and his team-mates were unaware of his impending departure. Mikel Merino, the former Newcastle midfielder, was informed of Isak’s exit while live on Spanish radio.

 

More crucial was Al-Rumayyan’s presence at St James’ on Sunday. PIF holds an 80 per cent stake in Newcastle and all large financial decisions must be approved by the chairman.

Just as Newcastle agreed to exercise Wood’s £25million ($29.5m) Burnley escape clause in January once Al-Rumayyan witnessed their lack of firepower first-hand, they have also released greater funds following the chairman’s first visit this season.

"

 

Which is interesting. It confirmed that the transfer was a pivot from the approach we were initially taking and shows how much power PIF hold. We get them excited and they'l push harder.

[Coffee_Johnny]

To be fair, TCD you weren’t the only one who thought what happened on Sunday, in various ways, altered our transfer priorities with the necessary loosening of the purse strings. It isn’t an either or, though, he was one of many we were interested in and when the situation changes (perhaps closer to top six/four than we thought, the sheer weight of passion in the crowd, the injury to Wilson) good business men/clear thinkers change their responses. Howe himself intimated there was a revision to the provisional plan after Sunday. 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Coffee_Johnny

[Skeletor]

What kind of performance/injuries do we need to get Maddison/Paqueta here?

[ponsaelius]

The club being all measured and structured most of the time with the Saudis coming along now and again and handing a big wad of cash for a marquee signing sounds the perfect balance.

[Hanshithispantz]

The College Dropout certainly did tell us so like, he told us that we needed to buy Emmanuel Dennis before we miss out on all of the players.

[duo]

I am so excited by this - Isak is the real deal.  

[kingxlnc]

Imagine if Isak becomes an Henry type in terms of how he adapts to the PL, it would be our Aguero. Bruno is Silva. Botman is Kompany. Pope is Hart. Trippier is Zabaleta. Now we just need our Toure to have the foundations in place for a period of success. 

[Optimistic Nut]

2 minutes ago, kingxlnc said:

Imagine if Isak becomes an Henry type in terms of how he adapts to the PL, it would be our Aguero. Bruno is Silva. Botman is Kompany. Pope is Hart. Trippier is Zabaleta. Now we just need our Toure to have the foundations in place for a period of success. 

 

No reason Joelinton couldn't be Yaya for us. No excuses the way he falls apart in the box he should be looking at 8 goals a season.

 

[duo]

19 hours ago, Mike said:

 

 

Get him playing on that left then  

[STM]

1 hour ago, Elliottman said:

‘But I don’t want Guitar lessons!!’ 

 

Yeah I get it, Ricky Gervais. I didn't read it👍

[duo]

He is 27 now - he's not going to get much better.  Not PL quality sadly.

[Jackie Broon]

35 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Athletic article suggests the deal was done in a matter of days after 3-3. I am posting this as a bit of a "I told you so".

 

 

https://theathletic.com/3540281/2022/08/26/alexander-isak-newcastle-transfer-record/

 

 

"

It was a player Newcastle had initially thought was beyond them given Real Sociedad’s exorbitant demands. But, following the pulsating 3-3 draw with Manchester City, Newcastle’s decision-makers were present on Tyneside.

Alongside the head coach at St James’ Park were the sporting director Dan Ashworth, the head of recruitment Steve Nickson, the new CEO Darren Eales, Eddie’s nephew and head of technical scouting Andy Howe and, most significantly, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chairman and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Having witnessed Callum Wilson finish the game early because of yet another injury, Isak was identified as the solution to the club’s attacking shortcomings and sources indicate that greater funds were made available.

 

The six-year deal for Isak was concluded at a rapid pace, despite months of declared interest previously leading to minimal progress.

 

Ashworth is believed to have re-engaged with Sociedad late on Monday evening, with an offer thought to be lower than one tentatively proposed last month. Jokin Aperribay, Sociedad’s president, admitted on Movistar TV that, “On Sunday, we did not expect Isak to leave,” but the player’s representatives informed the club 24 hours later of the forward’s desire to join Newcastle.

Though Newcastle’s first bid was rejected immediately, it reopened lines of communication and, to show they were serious about reaching an agreement this time, by Tuesday Ashworth was in the Basque country, accompanied by Nickson.

 

Only a handful of people around the club knew a delegation had flown out to hold in-person discussions for Isak, with most still assuming Watford’s Pedro was the top target.

 

The transfer advanced so quickly that Isak trained with Sociedad on Wednesday and his team-mates were unaware of his impending departure. Mikel Merino, the former Newcastle midfielder, was informed of Isak’s exit while live on Spanish radio.

 

More crucial was Al-Rumayyan’s presence at St James’ on Sunday. PIF holds an 80 per cent stake in Newcastle and all large financial decisions must be approved by the chairman.

Just as Newcastle agreed to exercise Wood’s £25million ($29.5m) Burnley escape clause in January once Al-Rumayyan witnessed their lack of firepower first-hand, they have also released greater funds following the chairman’s first visit this season.

"

 

Which is interesting. It confirmed that the transfer was a pivot from the approach we were initially taking and shows how much power PIF hold. We get them excited and they'l push harder.

 

Then again, the media have been briefed for months that we are heavily restricted by FFP and only had a limited pot of money this summer.

 

Within FFP limits (which we still have a lot of leeway with) funds probably aren't an issue, it's pennies to PIF, the issue is that we don't want other clubs we are negotiating with to think we have unlimited funds.

 

Although the Wilson injury might have had some influence over the timing of the deal and what we were willing to pay, I think there is a reason for briefing that PIF loosened the purse strings just for that.

 

For very different reasons to the Ashley era I think the club continues to repeatedly and intentionally mislead the press, public and fans over our financial position.

 

 

 

 

[Whitley mag]

Illustrious company.

 

 

[Happinesstan]

3 hours ago, STM said:

He will always be a club legend

As a player. His punditry can get tae fuck.

[duo]

FWIW I prefer Isak to Ekitike so he did us a favour by going to PSG.

[Happinesstan]

13 minutes ago, Jackie Broon said:

I think there is a reason for briefing that PIF loosened the purse strings just for that.

Definitely. It adds another layer of mystery to our available budget. Nobody knows if they gave us the full 60mill, or if they just toppped up what we needed.

[STM]

One way or another, the media got this wrong.

 

They were briefing about their being 40m left or whatever and we spent 58. They can claim things changed after the city game, that doesn't change the facts. The facts are that they had more money to spend that'll what the media thought.

 

Not one of them suggested that the budget could change... because they didn't know.

 

Personally, I think the club have been playing down their budget, precisely for this reason.