Alexander Isak's agent breaks silence on Newcastle star's future amid Liverpool interest - after striker misses Magpies' first pre-season friendly
The Premier League champions are ready to break the British transfer record to sign Isak, despite already spending £116m on Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen this summer.
The 25-year-old will cost in advance of £125m and the Reds will move if they receive encouragement from Newcastle.
However, the Magpies have made it clear that he is not for sale - prompting Liverpool to shift their focus to Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike in a potential £82million move.
Isak's agent has now spoken out on the player's future in an interview with Saudi Arabian media - with the star also attracting interest from clubs in the Gulf state.
'We are indeed studying and analysing all options, and we may be close to finalising the next step for the player,' Gonzalo Gaitan told Saudi newspaper Arriyadiyah.
'Without revealing any details regarding whether Isak will transfer or stay with Newcastle.'
Isak was left out of Newcastle's 4-0 pre-season defeat to Celtic, with manager Eddie Howe later admitting the decision was due to ongoing speculation over the striker's future.
Howe said speaking after the friendly match: 'I chose to send him home.
'The last thing Alex wants if he is not playing is to be sat in the stand and under that scrutiny, then if he wasn't going to play today, we mutually agreed he shouldn't be here.
'It was my decision. He travelled back to Glasgow with us, but I decided to send him home due to the speculation around him. Both [Joelinton and Isak] are fit but not ready to play. Alex has trained and is fine but we didn't want to take the risk with him.
'Yes, I've had discussions with him, but that's not abnormal,' he added. 'I respect a player's career and how short it is. Alex has been really good, he's trained really well and I realise there'll be noise around him.
'We have a few of those players who are irreplaceable. Your top players are so hard to find, so hard to recruit and so hard to develop. So when you have them, you need to treasure them. Of course we're desperate to keep him as part of our team.
'I think it's difficult for me to ever give 100 per cent clarity on any player, I'd never do that.
'All I can say is Alex is happy at Newcastle, he loves the players, the staff, the team. I've never had any issue with him and I'm confident he's going to be here at the start of the season.'
Isak has established hismelf as one of the Premier League's best strikers since joining from Real Sociedad in 2022.
He has scored 62 goals in 109 appearances for Newcastle across all competitions - including one in the Carabao Cup final win over Liverpool last season.
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