Newcastle ‘worst case scenario’ could see PIF sell up as Isak, Sesko mess creates ‘far greater problem’

Newcastle are set for ‘the bottom half’ as their bid for an Alexander Isak replacement is ‘salt in the wound’ in a ‘worst case scenario’.

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Newcastle set for bottom half
Another one bites the dust. At least we’ve shown hints of life after Jamie Reuben has gotten involved to take it out of Eddie’s nephew’s hands. but we never should have entered the summer without competent people in charge of transfers.

So now we have two options; tell Isak he’s staying put and hope for the best, or compromise with Liverpool on a fee of £125-£130m, and go to whoever else is on the shortlist in the last couple of weeks of the window and pay the asking price.

Watkins might be an option but Villa won’t want to sell him to a rival for top 4/5, and will jack up the price knowing Newcastle have cash to spend. Wissa I am not sure about and both he and Watkins are 28/29 so have very little re-sale potential. If we sign two strikers of that kind of calibre for perhaps a combined £80-90m its maybe enough to maybe be competitive to the top 7 league places with enough depth to put on a decent showing in the CL without being humiliated, but long term it’s a poor outlook.

We’d still have some money to spend on 2-3 new players in addition to the two new strikers we need, given how threadbare the squad is that has to be something to cling to. Maybe with one of the Reuben brothers now directing transfer affairs something could be achieved and we at least end up no worse than we are now.

But therein lies the problem – the incompetency of those in charge at Newcastle. The Guehi pursuit is completely baffling and is one of the most rage inducing stories coming out of Newcastle in this summer of rage inducing nonsense. What utter imbeciles are in charge of transfers who are revisiting this? He‘ll wait until next summer to join Liverpool on a free transfer if he has to. The Jackson links stink to high heaven of utter desperation. The lad will feel like he’s been exiled to the Nights Watch up north, is he going to thrive with that on his back? He’s already incredibly wasteful and petulant, so he’d be a complete waste of money and further salt in the wounds.

The worst case scenario could really be coming true. We are looking at a bottom half finish, other big assets being sold, and having a lot of money to spend but no-one actually wants to join us. And we have a recruitment team that would struggle to sell water to a man lost in the desert.

Fundamental changes at the very top need to be made and soon and maybe with a new CEO incoming this could happen but the bar for competence in football leadership seems to be set very low compared to other businesses of similar value, particularly at Newcastle.
James, Leeds

READ MORE: Sesko over Watkins? Man Utd take Hojlund, Zirkzee risk again over what’s really important

Newcastle holding onto Mayfair
I really enjoyed Dave Tickner’s article on the stigma surrounding the idea of being a selling club.

I had tried to write on this from a Liverpool perspective a few times lately but Dave summed it up perfectly for me.

As I read the article the image of the childhood monopoly board kept on coming into my mind, it was for many of us our first experience of trading (in this case properties) in order to win the game.

To extend the anaology Newcastle this summer are like the player who hangs onto the Mayfair property all game in the usually forlorn hope that they will get Parklane and they will build finance crippling hotels to destroy their rivals.

In reality though this usually doesn’t pan out. Despite the initial joy of getting Mayfair the clever players usually amass mid to high level properties (orange, red, yellow and green) spreading their risk but also their chances of collecting a full set. Due to their higher properties they also gather much more rent and start to dominate the game. Sound familiar?

Newcastle got into the position they are now by taking punts on promising players other clubs had looked at (Guimares, Isak, Gordon – classic mid level monopoly players) paid for by Saudi money before PSR bit and developed these players into what they are today. But now they’re in that position they seem to have frozen. They have a Mayfair card and can’t seem to see anything else anymore. Their knuckles are white gripping it and their nails draw blood from their palm. They’ve tightened up and that’s not how you win trading games.

Which was my fellow Dave’s point: the clever, successful clubs in the league have identified the market as another tool to maximise their potential (along with commercial revenues, underage systems, online presence etc.) they don’t have any moral objection to the market (like John Nicholson) because that is the reality of football right now and to ignore reality is to suffer by it, better to work with things as they are.

In Newcastles defence they look like they are belatedly unclenching their grip on Isak but damage has been done by their attitude towards him wanting a move in particular. If the penny finally drops (and sections of their fan base stop foaming at the mouth long enough to see) selling Mayfair and buying Leicester sq and Piccadilly would be the smart move for them if they buy clever and not in desperation from leaving it too late (in Liverpool terms VVD and Allison not Lazar Markovicz and Mario Ballotelli!)
Dave LFC (yes of course I think Wirtz is Parklane and yes that almost certainly means we won’t win the league now next year!) 

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Newcastle selling club ‘piffle’
Got to agree with Dave Tickner re ‘Selling club’ is not a slur.

There is only one apex predator in world football these days and that’s Real Madrid. Barcelona and Manchester United used to be up there with them, until the former committed financial harakiri, and the latter decided – for reasons known only to themselves – to embark on a project to become as shit as they possibly can for a club that generates obscene amounts of revenue.

So we end up in a world where basically every other club waits to see what RM are doing first, then plots their next move accordingly. Even gigantic clubs.

The idea that Newcastle, a geographical outpost of the UK, with no consistent record of success over 70-odd years, and who have only come off life support these last 3 or 4 years, can consider themselves “not a selling club” is utter piffle. There are clubs far, far bigger than them who still possess a healthy realism about where they are in the food chain. They need to get with the programme.
Andy H, Swansea. 

PIF to sell Newcastle
I was wondering about ramifications for Newcastle’s problems in the transfer market and how it could lead to a far greater problem. Their owners who are known for ‘disrupting sport’ can’t be pleased with their inability to do that in the Premier League. Maybe it’s time to sell Newcastle and buy a team that can?
Dale (no comment) Denton

Carabao revenge
Just curious. Is Liverpool still sulking because of the Carabao thumping by Newcastle? Liverpool seems to be going after Newcastle on all fronts. From eyeing Newcastle players (Isak and Gordon), to pursuing other Newcastle targets (Guehi and others!), and frustrating the harmony at St. James Park.
I am sure the matches between the two clubs will be feisty. How I wish it were the first one of the season. I can’t wait to see how this new rivalry (war) will play out this season.
Carey (Awaiting fireworks for the new PL season) Yiembe 

Sesko over Isak
Off season is a dry time for actual news. So some thoughts on the total lack of actual news…

1. Liverpool should sign Sesko and leave Newcastle and Manure holding the bag. Cheaper than Isaak. Doesn’t have chicken legs.
2. What the actual F is a transfer “expert”? Is it someone working in a team front office negotiating transfers and contracts? Or is it just some prat who shills for a couple agents/teams?
3. Why do we care about FIFA?
4. Why do we care about UEFA?
5. If we are all annoyed about the middle east getting tournaments because of “human rights” issues, why are we accepting of our teams playing in Hong Kong for a few quid in pre-season? Seems much worse to me.
6. Stories about old bulls and young bulls are from the Magnificent Seven if I recall. I.e., about as old as me. Let’s drop it.
7. Money is money. Manure had it forever which got old red nose his knighthood and a bunch of titles. It’s nothing new except for the fact other teams are now buying the best players and not just Manure. Reap what you sow.
8. Can we please just drop the endless comparisons between men’s and women’s football? They are completely different games. Except for the heart symbol celebrations.

It’s almost here. Let’s just get the effing season into gear.
Sean, LFC, Toronto

Daniel Levy ‘cementing his legacy’
IjRs email on Liverpools clever manoeuvres re Isak was good, but Noj’s email about the power of developing players topped it.

This is especially true for me, as I had just seen an article about Daniel Levy, who was saying Spurs fans will miss him when he’s gone.
As a Spurs fan, I have offered qualified defences of Levy in these pages.

But Nojs email made me think….how many homegrown stars have Spurs produced in the last generation? Kane, one. Any others? Dane Scarlett is the pot that seemingly never boils. Mikey Moore has potential.  Brandon Austin is maybe third choice keeper now.
But our youth setup hasn’t produced anything like the spine of a team. Levy, to cement your legacy, leave us a youth squad for the future.
Kind regards
Sam

Premier League play-offs
Firstly, Paul McDevitt, US sports are organized as they are for one reason – $$$$. Miami play in a division with Buffalo because they are local? At just 1,400 miles away – of course they do. The 3 hour flight is easy and having to fly up to 5 hours to literally anywhere else in the US is impossible. Adding a one-off decider isn’t really adding in extra games as there is already the possibility of one in the existing rules, It would just happen a little more often. As to adding more than one game, since the beginning of history (1992) we have never had 3 teams end within 3 points of each other at the top.

I think the point I didn’t make before is that the way league play differs from cup competition is that often your fate is not in your own hands. Maybe it is coloured by what feels like decades but is in fact 2 years of trying to chase the Pep machine. Being in the situation where you know that you could be 10 times better than everyone else going forward but those 2 games you lost in October mean you can’t possibly win.

The email was tagged as a “Crazy Idea” – and I have more – but I think that for those circumstances where the league is very close it is possible that the team in first had a slightly easier go of it than the team in second. It is fine to leave things as they are, but I for one would have loved to see Klopp’s 2019 team play-off against city for the league. This is also not about Arsenal being perennial bridesmaids, in my opinion they would have deserved such a playoff at most once in the last 20 years.
Ozzy AFC DC (Didn’t Joe Root just throw his wicket away and lose? If that is the criteria for SPOTY then cricketers should get it more often)

Fair proposals
The film to which “Dan, Spurs” refers is called Indecent Proposal (and not Dangerous Proposal).  I should know; I’d wrote in myself a few years ago using this same film as some kind of tedious half-baked analogy for I don’t remember what.

Incidentally there’s nothing indecent about what Liverpool are doing.  I’d argue, as many have, that we should be prioritizing defensive depth and perhaps cover at 6 for Gravenberch, but we’re well within our rights to have a good go at Isak…  though maybe we don’t really need him do we.
Eric, Los Angeles  CA