Newcastle haunted by Alexander Isak U-turn as broken transfer promise emerges
Newcastle face the prospect of losing Alexander Isak this summer - with the Swede telling the club he wants to explore his options away from St James' Park.
The forward has become one of Europe's elite No.9s and has spearheaded the Magpies' recent rise, but is now considering a move for pastures new - with Liverpool the favourites to land the £125million-rated star. It comes a year after he thought a new contract was coming his way, only for those talks to be shelved in a move that still stings.
Even before his record-breaking recent season, Isak was clearly heading towards top-class status and former co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi reassured the forward and his camp in March of last year that improved terms were on the way.
However a change to the hierarchy meant that promise was broken and that stung Isak. Now, with the club wanting to reward his importance with a new contract, the player is instead looking at what could be on the horizon for him away from Newcastle.
It all comes back to the decision taken by former sporting director Paul Mitchell, who has since left after only spending a year in his role. The ex-Monaco and Tottenham chief told Isak that he would not be offered a new deal with the salary he wanted potentially leading to Profit and Sustainability breaches, as reported the Daily Mail.
Mitchell felt that the Swede still had four years left to run on his contract - now three - and was already among the club's highest earners. It has been claimed that the decision upset Isak, with his frustration impacting on the dressing room as a whole.
In light of his stellar season, where Isak scored 27 times in all competitions, including one in the Carabao Cup final, the club are ready to offer him a huge pay increase but it may be a case of too little, too late with the player making rumblings that he wants a new challenge elsewhere.
Eddie Howe has confessed that any decision must benefit Newcastle, with the club potentially landing a British-record fee if Isak does leave, with the hierarchy ultimately making the final call on his future. He said: "The club will make the right decision with all the information that it has, and ultimately to try and move the club forward in whatever way that is.
"But I think there's a wider picture here. There's a whole football club that has to make the decision. The ownership, together with the board of directors, especially with the money involved in modern day transfers. The manager of course has an opinion, but ultimately the decision will rest with the board."
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