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Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Liverpool will not be held to ransom in pursuit of Alexander Isak
The PA news agency understands the Premier League champions remain keen on the 25-year-old Sweden international, who was made to train by himself on Tyneside on Wednesday after missing the Magpies' pre-season trip to Singapore and South Korea amid speculation over his future. However, as they await completion of Darwin Nunez's proposed 53million euros – around £46.3million – plus bonuses move to Saudi club Al Hilal, sources on Merseyside indicated they would not enter a bidding war as they sought a replacement. Liverpool's admiration of Isak, who scored what proved to be the winning goal against them in last season's Carabao Cup final at Wembley, is well known and they have already tabled a bid of around £110m, which was swiftly rejected. Newcastle have repeatedly insisted the Swede, for whom they paid Real Sociedad £63m during the summer of 2022, is simply not for sale and with three years remaining on his existing contract, they hold a strong position in one sense. However Isak, who signalled his intention to explore his options during the current transfer window, has so far resisted all overtures to sign a new, long-term deal at St James' Park and that appears to have encouraged the Anfield club that they may be able to prise him from head coach Eddie Howe's grasp. That said, the Reds are understood to have drawn up a series of criteria which will govern their pursuit of the former AIK Solna and Borussia Dortmund forward, or indeed alternative targets. Among them are an insistence that any replacement must be of the required quality, must represent fair market value and perhaps most importantly, must be realistically attainable. In that context, Newcastle's asking price of £150m – which was designed to ward off potential suitors – would seem a significant obstacle, as would their long-held stance on his availability, although there is little doubt that he would meet the quality requirement having scored 27 goals in all competitions last season. In addition, the Magpies' interest in RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko looks unlikely to come to fruition with Manchester United confident they are in the driving seat, complicating the search for a credible replacement with Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson having being touted as an option. Newcastle were already in the market for a striker following Callum Wilson's departure at the end of last season, but plugging the gap left by a man around whom Howe would ideally want to build his team, during a summer which has already proved intensely difficult, would be both difficult and expensive. The alternative is to persuade Isak that his future remains at St James' at least in the short term – there is little doubt that his head has been turned – and that is a task which would take all his manager's estimable powers. It remains to be seen whether or not Liverpool will increase their offer for the player if and when the Nunez deal is finalised. They will bank a significant proportion of the 75m euros – around £65.4m – plus bonuses they paid Benfica for the 26-year-old Uruguay international in June 2022, having rebuffed advances from Saudi Arabia in January and Napoli, who are understood not to have met the club's valuation and to have wanted to pay the fee over five years, this summer.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Gaza live updates: Netanyahu says Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza
Kylie is the Global Live Pages Editor, leading a team providing real-time multimedia coverage of the biggest breaking stories worldwide. She previously worked on the UK Breaking News team, and spent eight years in Westminster as a UK political correspondent - a period which included the Scottish independence referendum, Brexit and several general elections. She originally joined Reuters as a graduate trainee and has also covered investment banking.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Bank of England sees bigger QT impact on gilt yields
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Thursday it estimates that its programme to cut its bond holdings may have added as much as a quarter of a percentage point to the cost of 10-year British government borrowing, slightly more than it thought a year ago. Britain's central bank bought 875 billion pounds ($1.17 trillion) of gilts between 2009 and 2021 to support the economy through successive crises. It has reduced that debt pile by more than 300 billion pounds since 2022, through a mix of bond sales and allowing existing bonds to mature. Each August, the BoE assesses the impact of the programme over the past year, before its Monetary Policy Committee in September sets the pace at which bond holdings should fall over the following 12 months. Since October 2024 the BoE has reduced its holdings by 100 billion pounds - largely due to 87 billion pounds of gilts which matured. Market participants polled by the BoE earlier this year expected the stockpile to drop by 75 billion pounds in the 12 months from October 2025. In a report published after its August MPC meeting, the BoE revised up its estimate of the total impact of its quantitative tightening programme on 10-year gilt yields to 0.15-0.25 percentage points from 0.1-0.2 percentage points a year ago. This reflected the extra QT over the past year, it said. BoE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said at a press conference that the central bank intended to stick with its existing approach to QT, which included conducting gilt sales in a "relatively gradual and predictable manner". But he said it was too soon to give more detailed guidance on the future pace of QT. Market analysts at U.S. bank Citi said the report and Ramsden's comments made them more sure in their view that the BoE would cut the annual pace of QT to 75 billion pounds next month, and had led to modest price gains for longer-dated gilts on expectations of fewer sales. "Prudence alone suggests a slower pace, with either a subtle shift shorter by adjusting the longer maturity buckets to 7-15 years and 15 years-plus or just ending long sales completely," they said. Ten-year gilt yields have risen by about 3.25 percentage points since the start of QT in February 2022 and by 0.55 percentage points over the past year. Thirty-year gilt yields have risen more sharply, however, up by nearly a full percentage point over the last 12 months, and some economists think the BoE could skew its sales away from these gilts, or even stop them entirely. "We are very cognisant of developments in gilt markets, particularly at the long end. We have seen that spread between 30-year and 10-year widen," Ramsden said, but added that other bond markets had seen similar moves. The BoE's assessment noted that sales of long-dated gilts could have a bigger impact on liquidity due to reduced demand in the market from pension funds. "These same shifts in the gilt market could pose a risk that QT has a greater impact on market functioning than previously," it said. ($1 = 0.7454 pounds)
