Liverpool beware: ‘humiliated’ Newcastle will ‘punish’ their ‘sickening entitlement’ over Isak
Liverpool ‘bullied’ and ‘humiliated’ Newcastle and their ‘sickening entitlement’ during the Alexander Isak transfer saga could be ‘punished’ soon.
Everyone is still reacting to the situation sensibly, which is good.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
Scary hours
So it’s official: Isak is a Liverpool player. And honestly, rival fans should be shaking. This has serious RvP-to-United vibes – remember when they went out, nicked the best striker in the league, and the rest just had to sit and watch them walk to the title? Yeah, it feels exactly like that.
Liverpool already had energy, pressing, and enough chaos to give defenders sleepless nights. Now they’ve added a striker who moves like prime Henry and finishes like he’s playing FIFA on beginner mode. United had their “one-man swing” moment with RvP. This could be Liverpool’s.
City fans will pretend they’re not bothered, Chelsea fans will try to convince themselves João Pedro is “underrated,” and Arsenal fans will start tweeting about Viktor Gyökeres hat tricks against weaker opposition. But deep down, everyone knows this is a cheat-code signing.
It’s scary hours. Slot might just have his final piece.
Gaptoothfreak, Man. Utd., Lisbon (The only keeper we should’ve signed is Jesus Christ)
The PIF backlash
Dear Editor,
Regarding Isak to Liverpool episode, the league should now be very worried about a PIF backlash. The Saudi owners haven’t gone to town on ‘winning’ irrespective of their access to a trillion dollar sovereign fund. PIF is the preserve of KSAs Crown Prince and a vehicle to fund projects that power an enhanced global reputation of the nation.
In the Isak transfer they have been bullied by a club with more instant cash reserves and league clout but with an ultimate owner no way equipped to fight a sovereign nation. Henry is work about 5bn USD. Peanuts in Saudi’s world.
Standing back, humiliated and against a backdrop where money has created City and PSG, the danger is they decide it’s time to go for it. We will see at Christmas. Lawyers and accountants will be working on ways to get around the financial regulations of the EPL and a plan will be in play to fund Newcastle to the levels of Scrooge McDuck.
Liverpool, and in some respects Isak, could see this sense of sickening entitlement punished by the wounded egos of Newcastle’s owners with an investment backlash kickstarting Newcastle’s City-Esque era of dominance. They’ve poked the bear.
Let’s see. I wouldn’t mind seeing the result of Liverpool’s behaviour creating an arch nemesis to put them back in their box. Could be fun.
Alexander
Net Spend FC
Nice try Mailbox, but you’ll have to pry that Net Spend Trophy out of our cold dead hand.
1. According to transfermarkt.com,Liverpool have spent €483.7m this window. They’ve brought in player sales of €219.5m which is a net spend of €-264.2m. Are we top of the table? No! Arsenal have spent €293.5m with sales of €10.3m and a net spend of €-283.2m. In your face!
2. Over the last 5 years (new transfers included) Liverpool’s net spend is 6th highest in the Premier League. Behind Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea and United.
3. Our gross spend is also 6th, behind the rest of the “big 6”.
So take that. The Net Spend (and gross spend) trophy is ours and you’re never taking it away.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
Liverpool and their expensive emergency slide tackles
Paolo Maldini, the Rolls-Royce of defending, once said that a sliding tackle, while thrilling for the crowd, was a sign he’d already failed.
Welcome to the transfer window’s version of the sliding tackle: the last-minute, panic-fuelled, fax-machine-melting scramble to sign someone, anyone, before the shutters come down. It’s box office, it’s drama, it’s Jim White in a yellow tie. But let’s be honest: it’s also a bit of a mess.
Just as Pep Guardiola’s meticulously planned tiki-taka ballet is designed to keep the ball away from danger, the perfect recruitment strategy keeps chaos at bay. It’s not about throwing £40 million at a winger you scouted on YouTube last Tuesday. It’s about spotting an eight-year-old prodigy in the academy, nurturing them through every level, and giving them their debut in a team that actually knows what it’s doing.
But instead, we get clubs lunging in like a Sunday league centre-back who’s just realised the striker’s already gone past him. The transfer window closes, the ink dries, and fans are left praying that the new signing isn’t just another expensive emergency slide across the turf.
And in today’s transfer market, where Premier League clubs splashed a record-shattering £2.85 billion this summer alone, every signing feels like a sliding tackle. Take Liverpool’s £125 million dive for Alexander Isak: two good seasons, zero Champions League knockout minutes, and suddenly he’s the answer to all their problems and the THIRD most expensive player ever? Then there’s Nico Jackson to Bayern, two mediocre seasons for £70m. That’s not strategy, that’s a Hail Mary with a receipt.
It’s not even just transfer deadlines either, Florian Wirtz, cost £116.5 million, and Hugo Ekitike, cost £79 million despite being more potential than proven product. Yes, they might go on to be Liverpool legends but neither has won a game at the business end of the Champions League or any International Competition, they are nearly completely unproven at the highest level. “But Liverpool get more right than wrong”, True, except when they don’t (Keita, Nunez) all teams have this list of expensive flops, some worse than others *Cough* *Chelsea*
I’m not just picking on Liverpool though, Caicedo, Enzo, Mbuemo, Gyokeres, Rice, these aren’t just eyebrow-raising fees, they’re neon signs flashing bad squad planning. In a world where the text book tiki taka perfect signing is an academy gem raised from age eight and promoted into a functioning team, these deals are the footballing equivalent of chasing the ball after you’ve already lost it whilst being managed by Sean Dyche. Every single signing is proof you need to improve at academy level, exacerbated by the eye watering fees charged for anyone with a speck of talent. The older and more expensive the player, the bigger the admission of failure, £55m for Wissa? Give me a break.
It’s thrilling, it’s chaotic, and it makes great telly. But if Maldini was right, and sliding tackles are a sign of failure, record fees on deadline day might just be football’s most expensive stumble.
Aston Taylor (CFC)
MORE ALEXANDER ISAK COVERAGE ON F365
👉 Liverpool obviously tapped Isak up before losing their net spend champions crown forever
👉 How Alexander Isak tried and miserably failed to sabotage Newcastle’s Champions League bid
👉 Liverpool record transfer window ‘unthinkable’ and Manchester United have already shown it can fail
Player power
A hypothetical:
A footballer had a choice between two clubs, who were both prepared to pay an identical fee and offered identical wages, but one was led by a progressive coach like Glasner, and one was led by… Steve Kean (for want of a more contemporary name). Because they weren’t lobotomised, the hypothetical player signed up for Glasner.
But days after signing, Glasner was [poached/sacked/retired like Fergie], a new bloke came in, and was gonna play Walter Smith-esque 5-5-0 that could yet yield a cup final to please the fans but categorically meant you would never ever play.
Well you’d have nothing you could do. You’d be stuck there for the duration of your contract, in full knowledge that your career opportunities and the likelihood of a rescue bid would demonstrably be lower month by month, as would your technical progression, earnings, sponsorship, international prospects, and your ability to maximise appearances in a time-boxed career.
But behold, 18 months into your four year contract, the club receive an offer. Yes it’s from Barnsley and it’s league one, but an offer’s come through and been accepted by the club because it represents the best value return on their original investment. No one else even remembers who you are.
You can accept that transfer, or be subject to death by F365-missives-about-clearing -out-the-deadwood.
So not any recompense from the club for moving the goalposts and undermining your career. The opposite. Accept the lower wages, or you don’t play.
Obviously this is maximised for extremes, but I’d wager this scenario is far, far more common than what we’re whinging about with Isak and Wissa. Not everyone is Golf, Wales, Madrid. Jordan Henderson, he of the awful choices that are fine if Firmino makes them, well he had that choice. Google ‘deadwood’ in football and I’d wager you have a list of a hundred players who’s crime is no worse than wanting the wages they were promised.
I think it’s somewhat two-faced to approach this with a view of ‘a contract is a contract’ when clubs are far more likely to try and break it than players are, and fans of every colour are often cheering them on for trying to do so.
So if we’ve establishing that duration is not honoured, well then the remuneration isn’t static either. Football isn’t like US basketball. You don’t get “a” contract, or situations like Scotty Pippen. One of the interesting arguments I remember from Raheem’s exit from Liverpool, was his agent briefing the media that Raheem was understandably not too happy at LFC’s arguments akin to ‘regression to the mean’: Stay the course and you get what you deserve, but realistically, young players (even 22 year olds who the entire team are built around) aren’t the top earners at a side. That tends to be those who are 25-28, so it’ll be your next contract that is ‘the big one’. And in fact, you’re likely to get paid more at 32 than you are at 22 even though by then you’re the seasoned pro, playing on occasion. So here’s your deal, now, but don’t worry you end up ‘whole’ over time. Raheem and his agent rightly argued that, erm, that’s bloody nonsense and I’d ideally like to get the maximum salary I can possibly get now please.
But a lot of football does still seemingly work this way. You get your contract, but that is open to be renegotiated long before it expires, if appearances, or performances warrant it. So in that situation, it’s bullshit to say verbal commitments don’t mean anything. If the norm in your industry is that renegotiation is more common than not, and the club commit to that but then do not actually do it, you are not unreasonable to be aggrieved by it. Arguments about ‘a contract is a contract’ is nonsense.
The future of football may well be that a) players staying till the end of their contract then leaving on a free is the norm, and that b) player contracts are not regularly renegotiated to uplift wages, and that the deal you sign is what you are committing to for the length of the contract, which is (as I understand it, but I’m not an expert) like US sports. But until that day arrives, then I think all the arguments about Wissa and Isak (and Countinho and Suarez before them) is inherently and logically flawed.
It leaves something of a bad taste to see all these articles about player’s character. Comparing anyone to Eze seems massively unfair: If you stay the course you’ll play in a Wembley cup final whilst we sort this all out for you, and we categorically promise you that you’ll get a transfer (and both bidders are in your home town so you don’t even need to move, and both are champions league clubs), and the salary from both offers was sorted ages ago so you can sleep easy knowing the bank account is sorted. Why doesn’t everyone behave like him, eh…?
Football has created the situation; This isn’t the raise of player power at all. It’s the reaction of players to situations like Chelsea’s player hoarding, or United’s rotating through entire starting 11’s every 18 months, or in Newcastle’s case FFP being introduced meaning that clubs actually can’t offer mega wages from day 1 and have to uplift salaries as revenues grow to pay them. It’s the clubs and the organizing bodies that have changed, not the players or their rights and expectations.
Tom G
To the Editor,
The only thing that will stop Marc Guehi from joining Liverpool in January is a serious injury.
So, for the next four months, Palace risk having a player that will pull out of every tackle like he’s made of glass.
Good choice, lads.
Barry – LFC – Chippenham.
The windows are the eyes to your soul
I am still catching my breath after that window. Instead of saying who won the transfer window, I’ll make a couple of predicamations based on that.
1) We know Glasner kicked up a fuss regarding Guehi – he stood up to Liverpool and will never give them their captain, right? Wrong. Glasner wants to protect his legacy of good results so when the opportunity comes for a vacancy at a club that rhymes with Nan Unsighted, he is the first in line. Expect this to happen before Christmas.
2) Har har, Wirtz is a flop and Liverpool wasted money, YES! Nope. In every department, Slot had a minimum 33% personnel change. That is a major disruption, it’s tearing down what’s working to get better. It’s what winners do. Tiger Woods did that with his swing, Federer changed his game to be faster and more aggressive. When it clicked for PSG round about Christmas, they won their Ligue Un and the Champions League at a canter. From Dec, Liverpool will pull away and the focus for media stories will be the Top 4 battle.
3) Stick or twist for Man United. The new keeper will improve United just by having his name not Onana. But will it help United see a marked improvement that the fans want? Not easy. Amorim’s awkward system does not have ready-made players to buy at the highest level and United will be forced to come to a decision mid-season. Out comes the famous chant, “Let’s do the twist again.”.
4) City is rebuilding and Pep always comes back. Pep left the building long ago. City doesn’t look right. They spent 400 mil in 2 windows and not one signing is pulling up trees. Now Marmoush, the best of the lot, is out for 2 months. Baby Reijnders blows hot and cold match to match, Cherki was already shouted down by Pep for not tracking back. In Game 2. Donaruma looks like the best signing but this is a keeper not wanted by PSG. Take it from me – they will not challenge.
5) Arsenal with Gyokeres and Eze – winners! More like weiners. Second again, but you already know that.
Les Goh Guise!
Vinnie Pee
Silver Sterling nonsense
Whilst my club Chelsea should be applauded for their trailblazing approach to the transfer market and how other clubs are following their lead, let’s just take a moment to acknowledge that 30 year old seasoned and still highly capable Raheem Sterling is going to be paid 325K per week this season to train with with the youth team.
Let’s all just let that sink in and consider the total and utter nonsense.
Steven McBain, Singapore
Arteta is an egg
I read RHT/TS x mail today and I just think it requires an answer. Here is Arteta’s Resume
Work Experience
Manager/Head Coach Arsenal Dec 2019 till Date
Assistant Coach Manchester City July 2016 to Dec 2019
Player at Arsenal Football Club Sept 2011 to May 2016
That’s it (I’m sure you can fill in the rest). Oh. I forgot to add one. Born March 26, 1982. 43 years old.
I’m not going to regurgitate all the things that have been said in this mailbox over time. I’m just going to say what a sad thing to see in this generation. How we take the exception and make it the norm. How context no longer matters. How Arteta will get compared to Guardiola (despite having prime Messi and and unlimited transfer budget) or Mourinho (as James Outram in the mailbox put it, spent 916mill GBP adjusted for inflation in his first season).
I will not listen to you and you know what, I am glad we have a board who will also not listen to you. I would rather listen to people who have skin in the game. People like Arne Slot who was right when he said if we play this game 10 times, Liverpool win 1, Arsenal win 1, we draw 8 times. I would rather listen to people like Guardiola who told us in 2020 after another pounding that Arteta would deliver and we should be patient. I would rather listen to people like Szoboszlai who said to come 2nd 3 seasons in a row is huge compliment. Or people Daniel Farke who have told us we’ve been the best team consistently in Europe for the last 3 years. These are people with more experience than me and you. If Arteta left Arsenal today, he would be the most sought after manager in Europe. No arguments and the fact that you people are eager to see him go only gives credence to what he has achieved.
Does he make mistakes? Yes. Like anybody would in their first job. Some of you wouldn’t even run a successful lemonade stand talk less of a business or a football club. A football club that had no soul, no life, no culture, no vision when he arrived. Now you have players queueing up round the block to join and sit on the bench. Should he have been braver and played Eze from the start? Maybe. Subjective argument especially when you have a half-fit captain and your best attacking output player out of the game. These things are about timing and alignment. There are many nuances you and I don’t have privy to. For example, we are just finding out that Edu was actually not so good at his job. This was a man who delivered Sterling when the manager was begging for a striker. Arteta makes Arsenal better every year. That is a very hard thing to do. We played a defensive midfielder as a striker for 4 months and still made UCL semis.
Will he get Arsenal overt the line? I HAVE NO DOUBT.
Damola AFC Berlin Germany
A special shout
I wanted to discuss the recent Arsenal loss against Liverpool (still cant get over it). Given the team’s composition of tall, strong players combined with flair, it raises questions about their ability to secure wins in crucial matches.
Doesn’t this current Arsenal squad resonate with the first Jose Mourinho team at Chelsea, known for its physical prowess and tactical discipline?
While I don’t want to criticize Arteta, I’m sure the management must be considering potential managerial options. It would be fascinating to see Mourinho lead this Arsenal team.
Any thoughts?
A gunner from NL
