Striker domino effect: How Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd and others net out

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Then Liverpool tried to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle, before he publicly stated he no longer wants to play for Newcastle.

Except, Newcastle were about to sign Ekitike, a strikingly similar player to Isak, until Liverpool jumped in.

Of course, United never would've signed Sesko had they landed someone like Delap, Gyökeres, or Ekitike earlier in the window.

Someone like the athletic and chaotic Darwin Núñez would've been a nice fit at Eddie Howe's run-in-transition Newcastle, but Liverpool wouldn't move a player to a Premier League rival.

However, Núñez's main suitor, Napoli, couldn't afford Liverpool's transfer ask and the player's salary request, so he instead moved to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia.

Put another way: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund gave Liverpool €53 million to sign a player to Al Hilal that Liverpool are trying to replace with another player who plays for another team owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, in Newcastle.

2 Related

If Isak's move to Liverpool is going to happen, it might still happen because Chelsea signed two players that Newcastle tried to sign earlier this summer, Delap and Pedro, which means that Nicolas Jackson has fallen down the pecking order at Chelsea and might be available for Newcastle to sign.

It might not happen, though, because Manchester United also signed support forwards Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford and Matheus Cunha from Wolves, so Brentford don't want to lose Yoane Wissa, whom Newcastle also want, and Wolves don't want to lose Jørgen Strand Larsen, whom Newcastle also want, but Brentford did just acquire Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth, so maybe ...

Meanwhile, Napoli's Victor Osimhen, who is 26 and finished eighth in Ballon d'Or voting two years ago, moved for €75 million last month -- to play for Galatasaray in the Turkish Lig.

There's been a lot of inter-connected striker movement this summer, and if one more move happens, a bunch of other moves might immediately happen, too.

Then you've got another player who is about to enter his prime, who scored and created an above-average number of goals with even better underlying production.

You probably know where this is going: Player A is Pedro, Player B is Delap, and Player C is Jackson.

On paper, too, I could be convinced that those attackers are more talented than last year's group.

But in practice -- especially with how imbalanced and dysfunctional the team has looked over its first few matches of this new iteration -- it's hard to see how spending €300 million on two center forwards doesn't quickly hit a point of diminishing returns.

I feel pretty confident in saying Manchester United are better than last year because it's almost impossible for them to be as bad as last year.

And they haven't signed any center forwards.

In the long run, if Isak stays, starts to play, and starts to play like his old self, then they'll be better than they are right now.