My take on Alexander Isak | OneFootball

Nobody knows how the Alexander Isak “situation” will end.

Not me, not you, not even the team leader whom I would describe as the greatest manager of the 50 years and more that I have supported Newcastle United.

Eddie Howe could have been a superb diplomat if not for football, as he has proved continually since jumping aboard the Magpie rollercoaster in November 2021, when we were heading down, down, deeper and down.

He has been “economical with the actualite” (to quote an odious Tory politician, with suitable apologies for bordering on tautology) on countless occasions.

Today, though, his words at a press conference in South Korea seem to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: “We still support Alex in every way. My wish is still that we see him in a Newcastle shirt [this coming season].”

That’s good enough for me, though of course there are almost as many opinions on this “situation” as there are grains of sand at St Edward’s Bay.

At one extreme we have the person or persons unknown who decided the correct response this week was to attach a bedsheet to the training ground railings bearing the legend in black spray paint: “ISAK IS A PURE RAT”.

I hope this is a minority view, though it is probably backed by hundreds if not thousands of the United supporters who rejoiced at Wembley on March 16 when the “pure rat” did as much as any teammate to deliver a meaningful domestic trophy for the first time in 70 seasons.

At the other extreme are those who believe our top scorer, the only player to hit 20-plus goals for the Mags in consecutive Premier League seasons, has done nothing wrong and a great deal right. I’m in that camp. Most supporters are probably in between.

Disloyalty is the main accusation with which some fans are determined to beat Isak. To which my response would be: “Loyalty among elite footballers is as common as an ice-cube in a greenhouse.”

Newcastle United were Isak’s fifth club when he was bought from Real Sociedad for an alleged £63m in August 2022. At the time he was a month short of his 23rd birthday and had spent three full seasons in San Sebastian on the north coast of Spain.

He had signed for his hometown Swedish club, AIK, on July 1, 2015, when he was only 15. After a record-breaking 18 months he was snapped up by Borussia Dortmund, our old German friends. Their manager, little Tommy Tuchel, was reportedly uninvolved in the decision to recruit the 17-year-old.

Opportunities were few and far between at Dortmund, even after Tuchel left six months later. Hence the loan move to Willem II in the Netherlands for the second half of the 2018-19 season, where Isak scored 13 goals from 15 starts in the Eridivisie.

All of this factual background should be considered before United’s fans judge him with nothing more than rumour, gossip and utter tripe as evidence. Five clubs before he was 23, five leagues in five countries. He was with AIK from the age of six.

The club for whom he has made the most appearances and scored the most goals is Newcastle United. Three full seasons, at first competing against Callum Wilson for the one central-striker berth despite being the club’s record signing. He might lose that record to Benjamin Sesko any day now but, if this turns out to be a one-in, one-out transfer saga, the RB Leipzig striker will have his work cut out to better Isak.

Sesko should be regarded as a replacement for Wilson, not for our super Swede. We need at least two established top strikers, however promising Will Osula has been. That would be true even without the minimum of eight Champions League matches in addition to the three domestic competitions in 2025-26.

That old expression “don’t shoot the messenger” is attributed to Shakespeare, though he probably nicked the sentiment from Sophocles, a proper ancient Greek.

I’m going to contradict old Will and even older Sophocles, because neither of them could have foreseen the sort of scurrilous messengers who now inhabit our universe. Being charitable, I believe 24-hour rolling “news”, online “journalism” and other recent developments have queered the pitch for those who want to write well-researched and honest articles. If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.

My acquaintance with sports journalism and journalists is almost as lengthy as my love for the Mags. While we are on the cusp of a golden age to rival the 1950s, the opposite is the case for today’s media.

Bob Dylan memorably sang in the 1970s:

“Someone’s got it in for me They’re planting stories in the press Whoever it is, I wish they’d cut it out quick But when they will, I can only guess.”

I’m unaware of Mr Zimmerman’s interest in football but his words seem particularly apt for the Alexander Isak “situation”.

Here’s a brief recap, with apologies for rehashing the trash dumped by our friends in the media.

Isak has gone on strike. Isak has turned down a £200,000-a-week offer to stay. Isak is faking injury. Isak has already agreed the terms of a £300,000-a-week offer from Liverpool. Isak has been unhappy at Newcastle for months.

Believe all of that and you might be tempted to reach for the bedsheet and spray paint.

Before you do, please consider the evidence of your own eyes rather than the rumour mill, where evidence seems conspicuous by its absence.

The only relevant statement I have seen is one first published in Saudi Arabia (oh, the irony) two weeks ago, in which Gonzalo Gaitan, one of Isak’s agents, allegedly said: “We are indeed studying and analysing all options, and we may be close to finalising the next step for the player.”

That reads to me as an attempt by the agent to boost his and his player’s bank balance. Nothing more, nothing less. You can interpret it in a hundred ways.

At the risk of hypocrisy, with no more information than any other source but, importantly, with no axe to grind, here’s my take…

Alexander Isak is tired of ploughing a lone furrow at St James’ Park, often when he is less than 100% fit. A blind man galloping through a thick fog would have noticed his lack of sharpness in the second half of the season. Regardless of whether he was offered/promised a pay rise last year, he cannot be happy with the lack of on-field support.

He wants further success and must be aware of the increasing attention he is receiving from opponents who know their best hope of stopping United is to stop Isak.

I watched those plucky FA Cup winners at Crystal Palace kick him into submission after 22 minutes last November. We managed precisely no attempts on target that day. Four days later Isak scored what I consider to be the goal of the season against Liverpool, the first of 12 in 13 games.

Give the man a break, a pay rise, a new contract, a complementary striker. Give him what he wants, within reason. Isak strikes me as a decent and honest individual. He deserves admiration and respect, not pathetic abuse.