Newcastle need to drive hard bargain - but they can turn Alexander Isak saga into a positive
Alexander Isak is a very good player … but not good enough for a proud club to feel any need to shed its dignity. The starting point for the Newcastle United decision-makers should be simple. Isak does not wear the black and white again.
It is clear he wants to leave and if a footballer does not want to maintain a relationship with a fanbase whose loyalty and commitment cannot be surpassed, then it would be an insult to those supporters if the club tried to persuade him to stay. But the club is entitled - in fact, obliged - to get as much money as possible out of Liverpool, who appear to be the only suitors in this saga.
And if that means playing hardball with Isak himself, then so be it. How Newcastle United allowed him to train alone in Spain is something of a mystery.
As far as we know, the club is still paying him around £120,000 a week and the least he can do for that money is turn up at the proper workplace. Apparently, Isak is now back on Tyneside and will, presumably, tell Newcastle he wants to leave.
Then, Newcastle can start the hard bargaining. Their asking price is said to be a flat figure of £150million and, in today's market, that is not too fanciful.
You could tie yourself up in knots comparing and contrasting transfer fees but an established Premier League goalscorer, who is yet to turn 26, must carry a very high tariff. And Isak is what you can call established, having scored 54 goals in 86 Premier League appearances.
Those figures make him established but they are not mind-boggling, and nor are his 10 assists in that time. Just because he wants out of your club, there is no need to downplay the importance of Isak to the Newcastle United team that won the FA Cup last season and finished fifth in the Premier League.
That would just be plain silly. But there is a number at which every player becomes of decent value to the selling club. As Liverpool themselves know very well.
At the time - January, 2018 - there were not many Liverpool fans applauding the club's decision to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for a fee that could have risen to as much as £142million. But they have spent a lot of time applauding it ever since.
The money was reinvested wisely - they signed Alisson Becker, for a start - and Liverpool won the Premier League in the 2019-20 season. The reason why sporting directors and their like have become so feted in the modern game is that reinvestment of transfer incomings is more fundamental to a club's fortunes than it has ever been.
For fans, it is not nice when a player wants to defect to a rival club, especially when you think your club and your support has a very special draw. But Isak wants to defect and his talent is not sensational enough for you to ask him to stay.
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