The verbal hostilities between Newcastle and Alexander Isak have seemed to drag on for quite a while as the 2025 summer transfer window has brought nothing but tension between the two parties.
Isak has been one of the best strikers in the Premier League over the last few seasons, finishing second in the Golden Boot standings last campaign to help Newcastle qualify for the Champions League.
Hoping to generate a transfer to Liverpool, Isak has refused to play for Newcastle in preseason and appears wholly uninterested in rejoining the side as the start of the 2025/26 campaign nears. Newcastle, in response, have indicated that Isak is not for sale, with manager Eddie Howe declaring Isak out of the squad until he earns his way back in.
MORE: The very latest on the Alexander Isak to Liverpool saga as Newcastle forward remains frozen out
Newcastle legend Alan Shearer is torn on it all. In a unique position to analyse the saga, given his status as the Premier League’s all-time top goal scorer and ties to the Tyneside club.
“I have to be careful what I say, because as in everything, there’s two sides to every story,” Shearer said, speaking to a select group of journalists ahead of the coming Premier League season, “because as in everything I guess there’s two sides to every story and we haven’t heard anything from Alexander Isak.”
“It’s not a good look, for Newcastle or for him.”
Reports have indicated a standoff between Newcastle, Isak, and Liverpool that may come down to the end of the transfer window.
It’s a story that has multiple points of view. From a Newcastle perspective, they have a talented and valuable player who has multiple years left on his contract, and therefore no impetus to sell below their valuation.
From Isak’s perspective, he has the opportunity to take a perceived step up to join the defending Premier League champions, a team which can challenge for trophies on multiple fronts. Opportunities like this don’t come around often, and who knows if or when this will be available to him again.
And for Liverpool, they have a squad bursting with attacking talent and aren’t desperate to add players over what they believe they are worth.
Shearer is clear that while he knows all sides have their reasons, it’s a shame the situation has come to this point.
“I’m not daft enough to know, I know how football works,” Shearer said, indicating a knowledge of these dynamics. “I know how people can react, how clubs can react when they don’t want a player, how players can react when he doesn’t want to be there. I’ve been in the game long enough to understand it, so I don’t get angry at these, but I do think it’s a poor look for both Newcastle and for Alexander Isak.”
Shearer says that at the end of the day, when analysing the other big-money transfers of the last few years, Liverpool will likely need to increase their offer if they are to strike a deal, and relying on the player’s wishes to join may not be enough.
“It’s obvious that Liverpool have been into him or his agent, but to offer 110 million [pounds] when midfielders like Declan Rice, Jack Grealish, Enzo Fernandez, and others have gone for over 100 million…you’re not gonna get a guy that’s one of the best if not the best center forward in the Premier League for 110 million.”
The toughest part of this whole situation is where Newcastle sit if they were to lose Isak. Their complete lack of attacking depth makes selling Isak, even for huge money, a difficult and daunting prospect. With little time left in the transfer window to begin new conversations about players remaining on the market, any potential sale could leave the squad completely hamstrung for the coming season, which could be damaging enough to outweigh the incredible sum of money gained.
“Newcastle can only sell if they get players in to replace him beforehand. They’ve lost Callum Wilson, so they need two strikers in before they can let him go, and if they don’t get what they want, then it’s pretty simple, he has to stay.”
Yet if Isak stays at Newcastle, Shearer understands the complicated dynamics of that possibility. It would mean a reconciliation would be required to move forward, and while all parties would be motivated to come together, there would be a lingering awkwardness to the whole affair.
“Then it becomes a really messy situation,” Shearer said of the chance Isak stays at Newcastle, “because you’ve got a player who has a World Cup at the end of the next season who will want to play in it. You’ve got a club who have a valuation of a player and if no one wants to pay that, what do you do?
“What should have been a really progressive summer for Newcastle after winning their first domestic trophy in 70 years, after qualifying for the Champions League, it should have been a really promising summer where they went the other way and looked forward. And it’s turned out to be the exact opposite. Up to now, it’s been a disastrous preseason for Newcastle.”
There’s plenty more to come over the next few weeks as the summer transfer window comes to a close, but as of now, the standoff has everyone waiting tensely, not knowing what the future holds. At some point, someone will have to blink.
