Alexander Isak ‘furious’ with Paul Mitchell as Newcastle star slams Saudi owners over lack of ‘ambition’
Alexander Isak was ‘furious’ with Paul Mitchell and Newcastle last summer and wanted the ‘Saudi owners show more ambition, not just talk about it in Amazon documentaries’.
Alexander Isak dropped the bombshell on Thursday that he wants to leave the club amid interest from Liverpool and Saudi Arabia.
The Sweden international has ‘not closed doors’ to a potential move to the Saudi Pro League but is ‘giving his priority’ to the Premier League champions, who are currently thought to be preparing a British transfer record bid to land their dream striker despite already completing the signing of Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt.
According to The Daily Mail, Isak has been considering an exit since last summer, when a new contract was not forthcoming.
It’s claimed former co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi had ‘reassured Isak and his camp in March of last year that improved terms were on the way’, but when the pair left the club and Paul Mitchell was appointed as sporting director, that promise was reneged on.
Mitchell told Isak that he would not be offered a new deal with the salary he wanted given the club’s Profit and Sustainability issues, taking the view that the Sweden international still had four years left to run on his contract and was already among the club’s highest earners.
Isak was ‘furious’ and it’s claimed Eddie Howe talking of an ‘unsettled dressing room’ in the summer was in significant part due to the striker’s reaction to the news.
His ‘body language was a concern for staff’ at the start of last season when he scored just one goal in seven matches, leading Howe to publicly rebuke his squad as a whole in October.
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“We need to make sure we’re delivering our part as a football club for them,” Howe said. “But also the player has to perform to that level. If he’s saying he has huge ambitions, he has to be actually doing the business on the pitch – it’s a two-way thing, the challenge is always thrown back. As a player you can sit down and say I want to play European football, but you then have to play to that level as well.”
Isak – who’s on £120,000 per week – ‘believed he was being paid way below market value’ and ‘he, like others, wanted to see the club and its Saudi owners show more ambition, not just talk about it in Amazon documentaries’ and for the club to show ‘tangible signs of intent and progression’.
Craig Hope adds in The Daily Mail report:
‘There remains a chance that Liverpool do not make the sales to raise the funds to finance a deal of around £150million, and Isak could well sign enhanced terms to stay for one more season.
‘But a player’s career is fleeting. It is understandable that he wants to accelerate his journey with a 26th birthday in September. Him telling the club of his wishes is not a bargaining chip for more money. He does not want to play in the Champions League, he wants to win it. You have to say that is not an unwarranted ambition.’
