What the ECHO understands about Alexander Isak transfer as Liverpool watch on with week to go

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Liverpool transfer target Alexander Isak(Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

It was the Autumn of last year when Alexander Isak likely felt the first of what he feels have been a series of public slights against his character at Newcastle United.

But my main job at the moment is just to get Alex fit and playing his best football, enjoying his best football and scoring goals.

READ MORE:Alexander Isak alternatives considered as Liverpool transfer deadline set for Plan BREAD MORE:Eddie Howe makes fresh claim over Alexander Isak transfer situation - 'we certainly can't'

“Alex can only help his situation by playing well.



We love him and are desperate for him to stay for many years and score loads and loads of goals, but I don’t see a short-term issue with his contract.”

If Howe did not foresee "a short-term issue" with the contract situation of his star striker back then, there was most certainly a longer-term problem that was starting to bubble away.

But to get to the point where Isak currently finds himself - on a self-imposed exile, frozen out of tonight's potential blockbuster between his current employers and the club he covets most - you have to trawl back over 12 months.

The shock announcement of Amanda Staveley's Newcastle departure is what has greased the wheels for Isak's eventual exit strategy.

The former Monaco executive "ruffled more feathers than a cock in a henhouse" to quote one.

Having replaced Dan Ashworth in the role, it was Mitchell who was said to have decreed that, given the PSR issues that Newcastle almost fell foul of in the summer of 2024, a new deal for Isak, who still had four years left to run at that point, was essentially an outgoing that didn't need to be spent.

Despite his red-hot form, the wage bill did not need burdening further according to Mitchell, and plans for negotiations around a new deal were shelved.

As a result, Isak has remained tethered to the same terms signed when he joined on a six-year contract from Real Sociedad for a club-record £63m, and while his reported £120,000-a-week deal hardly makes him a Premier League pauper, the Sweden international has been earning nowhere near what many of his elite-level contemporaries have been.

It's here where the sticking point lies, with the player citing broken promises in an explosive public statement, sent via his Instagram account on Tuesday night, just minutes after he was included in the PFA Team of the Year.

Isak was conspicuous only by his absence on the night as his theoretical team-mates stood together on stage at the Manchester Opera House, but the timing of the statement was said to have set tongues wagging during the glitzy event.

It’s just one of those unfortunate situations."

There has also been talk from Newcastle circles that the player's agent, Vlado Lemic, is making a play for one final mega deal before he begins to wind down as his 60s approach.

But painting the actions of a largely unknown agent as the driving factor does a disservice to the player's own agency, even if that has been done deliberately to distance the ill-feeling from the star striker himself, who may still be made to return to the fold and be tasked with once more scoring goals.

"What a f****** mess Alexander Isak's agent has made," raged Toon legend Alan Shearer last week.

As expected, the head coach sidestepped questions in his Thursday press conference.

Despite the attempt to place some distance between themselves and the messy situation at St James', however, the Reds will return to the negotiating table if they are given encouragement.

Newcastle's response to Isak's statement, released a couple of hours later on Tuesday night, though, means that appears a remote prospect on the eve of the fixture between the two.

“We are clear in response that Alex remains under contract and that no commitment has ever been made by a club official that Alex can leave Newcastle United this summer," read the Magpies' response.