Eddie Howe makes fresh claim over Alexander Isak transfer situation - 'we certainly can't'

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Eddie Howe believes Newcastle United's owners won't sanction the sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool before a replacement has been brought in during the final week of the transfer window.

The Reds had an offer of £110m rejected by the Magpies at the beginning of the month and Isak is desperate to leave St James' Park, having made it clear he sees his future away from Tyneside.

Isak, who scored 23 Premier League goals last season, cited a minor injury to keep himself off Newcastle's pre-season tour of the Far East last month and resumed training at the facilities of his former club, Real Sociedad.



READ MORE:Liverpool handed new Alexander Isak and Marc Guehi transfer deadlineREAD MORE:Alexander Isak alternatives considered as Liverpool transfer deadline set for Plan B

The Sweden international was absent from the squad that drew 0-0 with Aston Villa in the Premier League last week and will also sit out the visit from Arne Slot's champions on Monday evening, a game which comes six days after Isak went public on his social media account with his desire to move.

Newcastle have so far struggled to find an adequate successor to Isak having failed to land Liam Delap and Joao Pedro, who both moved to Chelsea, Hugo Ekitike, who signed for Liverpool and most recently Benjamin Sesko, who opted to join Manchester United for around £73m.

Howe thinks the club's Saudi Arabian owners won't sanction Isak's potential British-record departure without having an alternative through the door before the window closes on September 1.

“I don’t think the club will allow that situation to happen," Howe said.

“We certainly can’t go through the season with no recognised striker at the football club – and that’s no disrespect to Will Osula.

“I think he’s doing really well and he’s progressing really well, but he’s got limited experience in the Premier League, although I’m really happy with his career progression.

“But Alex at the moment would be the only striker we have with Premier League history of goals and appearances and starts, so we can’t leave ourselves in that position.”

On the prospect of Anthony Gordon continuing to lead the line in the absence of Isak, Howe added: “He’s an attacker and he’s a very good attacker.

“The beauty of Anthony when we signed him was he can play right, left and potentially down the middle, something that he has done before.

He’s done it for England, so it’s not something totally new to him.

“I don’t think anyone can fill Alex’s boots and Anthony will know that himself.

He’s not trying to be Alex, he’s got to be himself.

I think if he’d scored against Aston Villa, you’d go, ‘that’s the perfect number nine performance’.

I think he had seven shots in the game, he looked a threat, he got a man sent off.

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“He was using his qualities, which are his pace and his dribbling skills, so I thought it was a really good performance from him.

"Yes, of course we were missing the goal from the team’s overall performance, but hopefully those will come.”