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From the higher floors of the 385-metre PIF Tower, employees can plot their next deal while gazing down on a glass-curtained canopy of concrete, steel and polished marble.

For Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the chair of Newcastle United, the top of this striking, 80-storey crystalline structure is a place where metaphorical blue-sky thinking meets reality.

Liverpool make approach to sign Eintracht Frankfurt forward Hugo Ekitike Read more

The bad news for Eddie Howe is that the business case for selling Alexander Isak to Liverpool this summer is surely far too persuasive for Rumayyan and his colleagues to ignore.

In an ideal world Newcastle’s manager would keep the Sweden centre-forward while acquiring the France Under-21 striker Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt before a Champions League campaign.

Given that Liverpool, like Newcastle, have made contact with Eintracht over Ekitike and seem determined to acquire the Frenchman or Isak that scenario seems unlikely.

The message from Newcastle – and it is said to originate “right from the very top” in Riyadh – has consistently been that Isak will not be sold this year.

Indeed, the word is that Howe wants to deviate from his preferred, winger-heavy 4-3-3 and play Isak and Ekitike in attacking tandem.

But, even before contemplating the reality that insisting something or someone is not for sale at any price is frequently a precursor to driving a hard bargain, that supposed stance begs quite a few questions.

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First and foremost why, shortly after Howe and club officials met Isak’s agent, did Newcastle suddenly turn their attention from potential £30m replacements for Isak’s former understudy Callum Wilson to more expensive targets and end up offering Eintracht Frankfurt approaching £70m for Ekitike?

Throw in some stylistic similarities in the pair’s games – for a start both like to drift to the left and suit counterattacking tactics – and the fact that Ekitike is less injury prone and the case for doing a deal with Liverpool becomes ever more persuasive.

Then there’s Howe’s relationship with Richard Hughes.

Although Liverpool deny making a formal approach for Isak, the fact that intermediaries have subtly made clear that Arne Slot’s board would be prepared to pay about £120m for Howe’s prize possession suggests they have received encouragement, however tacit, from someone, somewhere.

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With Paul Mitchell having stepped down as Newcastle’s sporting director this summer and Darren Eales, the chief executive, due to depart on health grounds, Andy Howe, the manager’s nephew, has a key role in recruitment.

Howe has twice tried, and failed, to buy him.

Liverpool possess the pulling power and financial clout to tempt Ekitike to play for Slot rather than Howe but is Isak the striker Slot really wants?

One thing is clear.
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