‘Childish tripe’ from Alexander Isak condemned as Liverpool urged to re-think

Alexander Isak has behaved pretty ‘pathetically’ according to pretty much everybody but Liverpool fans.

Send your views on this and any other subject – maybe other clubs and their transfer needs – to theeditor@football365.com

Cannot see the Wood for the trees
The solution to Newcastle’s striker woes; shouldn’t have sold Chris Wood.

You’re welcome.
Adam G

You think Isak is exonerated? Really?
Dave, LFC – absolutely hilarious contribution to this morning’s mailbox. Hopefully your mother doesn’t read it, because suggesting you never know what goes on behind closed doors before squarely pinning your colours to the mast of one of the parties behind said closed doors is about as hypocritical and blind a take as you could possibly have presented. Odd that some of that wisdom from her little finger didn’t rub off on you.

I wonder would you be quite so passionate in your defence of Isak if he was agitating for a move to Arsenal and dropping grenades in the press constantly? Did you start a gofundme page to help Harry Kane get out of Spurs a few years back when City came calling? Or petition for Trent to be left alone when your fan base was pelting him?

The desperation to exonerate Isak of any responsibility in this mess is transparent as hell. Any adult recognises that gentleman’s agreements and the like are utter nonsense, and when push comes to shove it’s all business.

To that end, Isak has conducted his own business poorly and is quite rightly getting criticised for each subsequent strop. So unless Dave is a similarly entitled millionaire and can’t differentiate this from normal behaviour, rowing in behind him just because he wants him to join his club is embarrassing as hell.
Keith Reilly

READ: Alexander Isak should be raging at Liverpool, not Newcastle United

…That “take a bow” mail from Dave LFC is so spectacularly stupid, I’m almost speechless. (Get someone to) Read it (to you) again Dave, see if you can spot the error. Jaysus H Christ on a carousel, quitting arguing with special folk like him BTL was one of my better decisions.
RHT/TS x

…Hi Dave, could you please just shut up for a day or so?

I’d honestly read 3,000 words from Stewie than your nonsense that allows fans of other clubs to call us delusional.
R

…Unlike some, I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of everything that has gone on, but ‘promises have been broken’ is an interesting stance to take from a person who has faked an injury, trained with his old club without permission, made himself unavailable and is trying to get out of a 6 year contract, 3 years early,

I’m not saying he wasn’t on a promise from the club (oi oi), but the naivety from him and the incompetence from his representatives to not get it down in writing is staggering. His statement last night was the type of thing my other half reads on Instagram when the latest reality TV show couple break up, childish tripe from an adult desperate for likes, hearts and support. Also, I’m sure the club’s lawyers would be able to spin it into a formal transfer request, which he seems desperate to not hand in.

It’s a shame because on the field he’s superb and provided some wonderful memories, but his actions have been frankly pathetic. While I’d gladly sell him, I’d also enjoy seeing the club fine him for every missed game, training session and negative social media post he puts out. Money seems to be his biggest driver in all of this.
Ratt Mitchie (Off you f*** Alex)

Should Liverpool want him now?
Based on Alexander Isak’s statement, it looks like Newcastle (or more likely, someone previously in the management structure at Newcastle who is no longer with the club) made some sort of vague promise to Alexander Isak about listening to any offers from more established global elite clubs that came in, and have now either reneged on those promises, or decided that any new management structure aren’t bound by any unwritten agreements.

I can imagine this being very frustrating for him, although questions have to be asked about his sanguine response to this. As a Liverpool fan, though, I’m sort of moving to the “is the juice worth the squeeze?” with Isak. He’s clearly the best striker in the world that Liverpool can realistically sign, but on the other hand he seems a bit, er, high maintenance, and not entirely committed to the shirt.

That said, it’s probably really important for Newcastle to sell him. Firstly, because you don’t want a valuable asset, and your second-highest-paid player, rotting in the stiffs depreciating in value, but secondly, and more importantly, because you don’t want to get a reputation as a club that doesn’t let players progress when you’re out trying to persuade up and coming young international players to sign for you.

Do we really think there’s no connection at all between Newcastle’s difficulties in signing players this season and the club’s very public quashing of a talented player’s desire to progress his career? There’s a general consensus that it’s difficult to persuade world-class players to come and live in the North East, but maybe it’s more that it’s difficult to persuade world-class players to live in Ponteland for “as long as we insist, you snivelling little shit. Don’t like it? There’s the door. That, as it happens, we’ve locked.”

So we’ve probably moved from a situation where Liverpool are desperate to sign Isak, and Newcastle don’t want him to leave, to one where Newcastle really have to sell him, but Liverpool are, or should be, having second thoughts. Difficult to see how it plays out to everyone’s satisfaction.
Dara O’Reilly, London

What’s the PSR alternative?
On the back of Tickner’s piece on PSR ‘fairness’ and Matt’s letter this is a something I’ve argued about in the mailbox previously and mainly with Villa and Newcastle fans. They are right that PSR does intrinsically favour the big clubs because these rules are designed to make clubs spend within their means, so the more revenue you have the more you can spend. What I have yet to hear from anyone is a practical alternative.

Every supposed solution has just as many if not more problems than the current arrangement. Just get rid of PSR, ok but then City and Newcastle are your league champions every year forever. Create a hard salary cap, then you can’t attract the best players and the best English players go abroad and you slowly kill the league, and you’d end up with ‘traditionally successful clubs’ still being the biggest attraction. Luxury tax for overspending, doesn’t effect those with bottomless pockets so has the same effect as no rules. Bond system, might prevent clubs going to ruin but doesn’t restrict spending so same nation state issue. Create restrictions linked to debt, again hurts anyone who hasn’t got a billionaire/nation state sugar daddy because most clubs operate through manageable debt. The list goes on and on.

I’m willing to be convinced but I’ve yet to see the good idea that creates a better system for all clubs, not just the one you support. Dump on PSR all you want, god knows we all love shitting on the status quo, but without a workable alternative you’re just yelling at clouds. I’ve previously suggested tweaks to the system that might help with particular issues like the selling of academy assets that make things a little bit fairer. For me that’s the way to do it, small changes year after year that eventually bring us closer to the ideal arrangement.

You have to remember though the Premier League is a members club. There isn’t one person with ultimate authority who can just impose draconian measures. The clubs have to vote on any changes so they have to advantageous enough to at least 14 clubs to have any chance of being enacted. Its not good just saying ‘we had football before PSR so we don’t need it’. The world is a different place, the Premier League is a soft power tool wielded by governments and dictators, ignoring that is foolish.

The only thing I’ve seen that could create a fairer Premier League, and might get voted through, is changing to a ‘direct to consumer’ global streaming service for like £15 per month. This supposedly could give each club upward of £500m per year in additional revenue. Though it still wouldn’t make things level in terms of revenue it closes the gap significantly, so instead of Villa’s revenue being equivalent to 50% of Man United’s, it would be more like 75%. However this probably also kills off the rest of English football and perhaps some other foreign leagues as all 20 clubs become bigger than just about everyone, so not a great idea really.

I’d really love to hear some practical solutions because I just can’t see it.
Dave, Manchester

Is this the year of forgotten players?
While all the focus was on new signings in the opening games of the Premier League season it was interesting to see how many “forgotten players” signed in previous transfer windows played had various impacts on games. Imagine the hype if they were new signings….

Tottenham’s big-money Brazilian international star striker scores a world-class scissor-kick that looks like it could come straight of the beach of Rio.

Liverpool’s Italian international scores the critical goal as he helps Liverpool to their win similar to his match-winning performances that helped Italy win the Euros.

Man U control the midfield against Arsenal with Mason Mount and Arsenal themselves mange to bring on Kai Harvertz who helps see out the win for Arsenal, these pair were key to Chelsea winning the Champions League in 2021 with the former setting up the latter for the winning goal and then going on to be player of the season.

Could a fit Havertz be the key to Arsenal finally winning the Premier League? They certainly would have had a better a chance if he had not missed the last 4 months of last season. To date he’s been more of a one goal in every 3 games type of striker which is what Isak was until the last 2 seasons and his 20 goals in 55 games is far better than Isak’s 16 goals in 52 games (admittedly for a far better international team). Player of the year Salah didn’t start becoming a one goal in 2 games striker until he was 23 so I don’t think it’s out of the realms of possibility that 26 year old Havertz can significantly improve his numbers or maybe a better example is Berbatov who only scored 20 league goals once in his decade in the Premier League but they were the crucial goals to win Man U the league that year.

Then finally, not a previous big signing but could this be the year that Oscar Bobb breaks through to become a key player at Man City?

Time will tell,
Paul K, London

Talking Tottenham and transfers
I used to love indulging in the summer transfer window ramblings. As a kid, I’d keep my eyes on spurious Teletext updates and the like. Ah, the good old days.

Now, the complete and utter over saturation of football, in the age of the internet and the social media era, means it’s ever so draining, especially where gossip is concerned. What really tugs my nostril hairs though – that’s not a good thing, for people wondering – is the ‘DEAL DONE…..the clubs just need to agree a fee’ or the DEAL DONE…..the player just needs to say yes’ on almost every single deal, every single day, every couple of hours. This combined with the recycled nature of updates is severely grating.

Oh, right. The clubs just need to agree a fee. That small sticking point. The player just needs to say yes. Of course, as a Spurs fan, I’ve been subjected to all sorts of transfer abuse down the years. Ya know, what with the likes of Rivaldo being linked and Arsenal or Chelsea stealing players after we’ve paid for a taxi or had their dog fixed at the world’s leading vet. Or something.

On a side-note, how understated is the importance of just setting your team up correctly and have players play in their actual positions? Only 1 game in, granted, but it’s crazy to see a RB and LB being competent whilst playing at RB and LB (and not being found in an advanced midfield position or ahead of the striker or sat in the stands). That in addition to having a defence-first minded midfielder that doesn’t leave the centre of the pitch looking like Moses has just parted the Red Sea, means the oppo won’t be scoring at will. Who’d have thunk it, eh?

Actually very excited at the prospect of Kudus and his potential, as well as a solid & proven holding midfielder in Palhinha. Plus (very hopefully) Eze, who I highly rate. In a world where fans wants to see 10 new players, gimme 2 or 3 smart additions and a solid set up. It’s competitive at the top of the league, no doubt, but for once I am optimistic that we could be in the running for a CL spot. Cue a 13th placed finish and across-the-board cup humiliation.
Glen, Stratford Spur