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Alexander Isak is on strike. There is no other way for those inside or outside Newcastle United to dress it up now. His words and actions mean he is unavailable for Saturday lunchtime’s Premier League opener at Aston Villa.
He does not want to train with the squad and, by extension, that rules him out of all fixtures for the foreseeable future, while the club continue to pay his £140,000-a-week wages. As of last weekend, he had not been disciplined by way of a club fine. We understand that will change if he misses a competitive match, as he will this weekend.
But so long as the transfer window is open, Isak’s stance will not change. Or rather, the instruction of his agent Vlado Lermic will not. Why? To cross the picket line, they fear, would give Newcastle encouragement of a truce and the club could decelerate their search for the replacement strikers that will enable his move to Liverpool, a hunt which is ongoing.
Don’t show any sign of weakness, Alex, is the order from his camp. But in listening to the advice of those who want the transfer to happen - this is said to be Lermic’s last big deal before winding down at 60 - Isak has already shown a fragility that has disappointed those closest to him within St James’ Park.
Disappointment would be the right word, too. Not anger. Not disgust. Indeed, there is some sympathy. As one senior club source said: ‘It did not have to be like this.’
Eddie Howe is many things as a manager, but he is fundamentally a decent person. He, his staff and the club’s hierarchy have known of Isak’s feelings for over a year.
Alexander Isak is on strike at Newcastle United - and this is what will happen next
Isak has given the club three excellent years but has decided now is the time to go
At least in that they have known he was unhappy following the decision, last summer, by new sporting director Paul Mitchell to renege on the promise of a new contract made by the previous co-owner Amanda Staveley, who believed he deserved a significant pay rise.
Then, earlier this summer, Isak and his agent communicated their desire to leave, as exclusively revealed by Daily Mail Sport. But what has played out since, and the unsavoury nature of it, did not need to happen. That is the frustration among owners, management and team-mates.
Isak has given Newcastle three brilliant years and 62 goals in 109 appearances including and the decisive one in the club's first trophy victory for 70 years. For sporting reasons as well as financial, he wants to move on.
Howe was 24 - one year younger than Isak - when he left Bournemouth for rivals Portsmouth. He is not blind to a player’s ambitions when a career is so short. The regret among insiders is that Isak could, and should, have shown more respect for those who have helped to accelerate his rise.
As one source suggested, even if Isak had gone public with a statement declaring his wishes, but continued to train and play, the club would still have explored alternative strikers and a solution that worked for all parties. They have done that anyway, but a bitter taste has lingered throughout.
So much so, now that options A, B, C, D & E have come and gone, they have arrived at F, and we all know what F stands for. There is a feeling among some that the most viable avenues have been all but exhausted.
Indeed, in nearly four years, post-takeover recruitment has been exceptional. From Isak to Bruno Guimaraes to Kieran Trippier to Dan Burn to Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali, they have barely got one wrong. They do not want to start now, especially not when dictated to by external forces.
That being the case, one door that will be left ‘wide open’, as one senior source put it, is the one that allows Isak to return to training and playing. That has always been scenario A - he has a change of heart, signs a new contract (even with a release clause or promise of a move next summer) and spends this season at St James’ Park.
The door will be left wide open for Isak to return, if he wishes
Howe knows how Isak must feel, having left for a bigger club in his playing days
Scenario B is the one the club have been working to for the past two months - sign the players that would act as a palatable replacement for the Swede and then negotiate a sale that would extract maximum value for their star man, who has three years to run on his contract. Newcastle are in a strong position.
Scenario C, and one that becomes more likely with each passing day, is that Isak remains against his wishes and the club gamble on him returning to the squad post-September 1. Howe and his staff brought Isak ‘back in the building’ after the upset of last summer and he went on to score 27 goals, including the winner in the Carabao Cup final.
It could, in theory, be done again, and once a ball hits the back of the net, the ripple effect can quickly turn into a wave of forgiveness among supporters. Isak should also recognise the lengths the club have gone to in trying to sign his replacement - they did not tell him he was going nowhere.
Scenario D, and one that was not on the table a few weeks ago, is that Newcastle sell Isak without having signed two strikers (they would need at least one) and get through until January with a likely combination of Yoane Wissa and Anthony Gordon at centre-forward. Wissa’s arrival from Brentford is expected in the coming week.
As Howe said last weekend, all options are still at play when it comes to Isak’s future. The most likely? That depends on who you speak to and, as such, 50-50 would probably be a fair estimation of the move happening. Is he for sale? No. Will he be sold? Let’s see.
It should also be said, of all the unknowns in this saga, Liverpool returning with a second offer is not one of them. They have not come this far to walk away after one bid of £110m, which they knew would be rejected.
Isak’s conduct is, yes, governed to a large extent by his agent, but Lermic’s conversations with Liverpool would have influenced their exit strategy.
Newcastle sent a high-powered delegation to Leipzig to sign Benjamin Sesko last week, and had they done so, Isak would have been on his way to Liverpool by now. The negotiation over a British-record package between the clubs is unlikely to be the major stumbling block here. More so, it is Newcastle feeling ready to negotiate.
Yoane Wissa (centre) is on his way to plug the gap felt by Isak - but will it be enough?
An increasingly likely scenario is that Isak is made to stay beyond the transfer deadline, and that he can be convinced to give his all after that
For now, Isak continues to train alone, to the point where some team-mates have not seen him since before the club’s Far East tour.
The house he rents from former Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark went on the market last month - neighbours say Isak was moving out anyway after two burglaries - but you can be sure he is not looking for another 12-month lease on Tyneside, as it stands.
That leaves Newcastle with a striker who is currently of no use to them, and you can interpret ‘striker’ as you wish. Isak’s exile is self-imposed - Howe has made it clear he wants him with the team now - and the longer he stays in the cold, the more the warmth of affection for him evaporates.
Not that he appears to care, and that is what stings the most for those who have cared for him greatly.
