The Isak Saga

[justme]

the "BBC" are saying we may pull out of the deal.. If we lose Nunez.. we will need a number 9.. I know we signed Ekietike but he's unproven. its a big gamble on relying oh him straight away. He needs to bed in..with the sad death of Jota we will be short if Nunez does indeed leave

[miller0863]

Probably just a bit of sabre rattling

Maybe…

[Insidious]

We publicly announced moving on from an attempt to buy Van Dijk and got him a few months later.

Patience.

[Ravo19]

I read that newcastle turned offer down stating isak not for sale untill they get replacements in which is proving difficult.
Its pointless liverpool putting in a 2nd offer untill newcastle have there replacements,imo this is whats happened and not liverpool stepping away.

[Crimson Dynasty]

the "BBC" are saying we may pull out of the deal.. If we lose Nunez.. we will need a number 9.. I know we signed Ekietike but he's unproven. its a big gamble on relying oh him straight away. He needs to bed in..with the sad death of Jota we will be short if Nunez does indeed leave

Don't forget the departure of Diaz, who filled in at the 9 in most games.

Really, the death of Jota and Diaz leaving (and potentially Nunez too) all does leave us with a massive hole in the central striker role.

We could go with a lineup that has Eketike with Wirtz playing farther forward in that false 10 role as a front pairing while Szobo and/or Macca slot in behind them in the central midfielder position.
But it's the depth I'm more worried about.

We need at least one more attacker even if we may play some games with Wirtz in a forward role rather than midfield.

Is Rio ready,......especially if we need to have some games with Gakpo playing central as he has both with us and the Dutch national team?

One thing is clear.
If we do go for another striker in the market (even if lower profile), that will pretty much spell the end of Isak's dream to move to us.

[Crimson Dynasty]

I read that newcastle turned offer down stating isak not for sale untill they get replacements in which is proving difficult.
Its pointless liverpool putting in a 2nd offer untill newcastle have there replacements,imo this is whats happened and not liverpool stepping away.

Officially, they turned it down because we didn't meet their valuation of him.

But they're delusional if they think us or anyone else are going to pay 150-170 Million for him.
I can't even see the Saudi clubs paying that much.

Unofficially, yes, it's the fact that they don't have a replacement lined up - but that is ultimately their own failing.

They've known that Isak would want to leave if Liverpool showed interest, and their initial plan had been to go for Eketike as a replacement. The question is whether they knew that Eketike's position has always been that he would not leave for any other club than us. If they didn't they have a terrible scouting and recruiting department, and if they did, then they're incompetent in still trying to convince him.

(to be fair to them, this isn't just a slam against just them. We too showed a bit of that level of lack of competence last time out trying to get Caciedo whent he player had always had his heart set to going to Chelsea and had already been in discussions with them in the background when we went in with our bid. I always hated that we did that. And then made it worse by having Flavia as a backup-option, who himself wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of being a second-choice to failing to get Caicedo.)

I think there could be more to this story than we're ready and it wouldn't surprise me if we don't do anything more towards this deal before the window closes, and then in January we get a deal - like we did with Virgil where the situation was almost identical with Southampton rejecting our approach and accusing us of tapping him up, us pulling out completely from the deal, Virgil being very upset with Southampton (but not being disrespectul), but ultimately leading to Southampton having to sell him to us anyway in the January window that followed.
AT the time too, the same excuse was also given that they hadn't got a replacement yet for him and wouldn't sell until they did.
And that may be true, even now.
Unfortunately Newcastle seem incompetent in this regard, and someone on the internet made the joke that maybe they should let Hughes handle the task of finding them their Isak replacement

[CCTV]

Am I the only one that isn't wholy convinced by him? Don't get me wrong, I think he'd be more effective than Nunez but there's just something about him I can't quite put my finger on.

One thing, is if we do end signing him, nobody can accuse FSG of sitting on their hands this summer!

He has a similar feeling to Rice imo, a good player but not worth the fee.

[eggy81]

I know it’s a mad thing to say but 110m seems a very lowball offer. Had to have known that wouldn’t get it done.

[miller0863]

They would also know that Newcastle couldn’t be seen to take the first offer

[teesred]

He has a similar feeling to Rice imo, a good player but not worth the fee.

To be fair as much as I can't stand Rice I think he's been worth the fee. He's made a massive difference to Arsenal.