Newcastle should ‘do a Ronaldo’ with Isak to ward off Liverpool
Newcastle United should follow Manchester United in telling Alexander Isak he is staying for one more year.
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Newcastle do have some power, actually
The common consensus is that Newcastle should just pull their pants down, take the money and give Liverpool what they wish.
I do not share this view. Newcastle can take the money for a want away player and invest it wisely.
However, Newcastle has factors to think about which in my view should prevent them from selling for now.
1) With any money they take, they would not get a striker as good as Isak for the season – which includes a go in the Champions league.
2) The effect a sale will have on other top players like Gordon, Guimaraes etc. It may speed their exit.
3) PIF. The Saudis bought Newcastle for vanity reasons. This episode will not play well with them at all. It makes them look powerless. This is a feeling they would not like
Newcastle are powerless you say. They have to sell a disgruntled player. Eh no they are not powerless.
1) Isak has 3 years left on his contract
2) More importantly it’s a World cup year next year. Isak will NOT down tools this season and watch his Swedish strike partner play at 100% at Arsenal. This is a particularly powerful point for Newcastle.
Personally, Newcastle should do what Sir Alex did with Ronaldo. Tell Isak they can’t sell him this season for the points outlined above. Give him a new contract with a £100m release clause and say they will be happy for him to leave at the end of the season providing the clause is met.
This way Newcastle gets an elite striker for the CL campaign and enough time to regroup for the next season.
Michael O, Chingford
…Just read a bizarre tirade from Andy H in Swansea that seems to want Newcastle to hurry up and get Isak out of the door just because “Liverpool want the player.”
Does anyone want to remind him that for a transfer to happen, or even to kick off, an actual bid needs to be made?
I’m sick of all the stories too, but it’s nothing to do with Newcastle stalling. Why not email the Liverpool hierarchy and tell them to come forth with some cash and stop doing their business through the media?
Until we receive an offer we don’t need to do a thing, Andy.
Simon NUFC
Newcastle did have fair warning…
I can’t be the only one to be amused to hear it coming out that Isak told Newcastle he wanted to move last year – maybe rather than Liverpool/Arsenal (remember their interest?) tapping him up, his agent was the one who actually went out and said he wanted to leave. It would make sense of the initial incessant rumours about Arsenal, and then after the season had finished, Liverpool.
Also suggests that Newcastle’s strategy this transfer window is to bury their heads in the sand. They’ve had a year to prepare for this. Were I a Newcastle fan, rather than looking for scapegoats at the horrific prospect of them receiving a British record transfer fee, I’d be asking what on earth the board and the recruitment side of Newcastle are doing, personally.
Jon, Bridgwater (Displaced Chairboy, so got no dog in the fight)
The state of it
Dear Martyn Hancock, you and the majority of Newcastle and Man City fans love banging on about the ‘red cartel’ whilst completely ignoring the real issue here – state ownership.
Don’t pretend that you care about fair competition when what you really want is your vile owners to spend without restrictions and blow everyone else out of the water, paying vast sums in transfer fees and wages. State backed clubs don’t have to function as regular businesses like other football clubs, the money tap never runs dry. PSR isn’t perfect, but letting state backed clubs loose in a world without any financial regulations will kill the Premier League.
What Newcastle and City fans love to ignore is state ownership is by its very nature anti competitive and it distorts the market, which is why it’s banned in many industries. The likes of United, Liverpool and Arsenal might be able to keep up to a certain extent with unregulated state ownership, but it will lead to an even greater gap created over the rest. How will a mid table club keep up if Newcastle start paying the wages they do in the Saudi league? Look at what Ronaldo earns in a unregulated environment.
The harsh truth is no financial regulations will work properly if state backed clubs are here to stay. As we’ve seen with City, they’ll find a way around the rules to gain an advantage because becoming sustainable is never going to be their aim.
TB
The actual point of PSR
I think you all are missing the essential point of PSR. It, at its core, is meant to increase the commercial behavior of the clubs. In order for clubs to be more financially stable, they need to do what? Spend less? Don’t be silly. More tournaments, more naming rights, more seats, more advertisements.
In a few years you’ll be flying to Riyadh for the Al Rajhi Bank Cup final between Preston North End and the LA Galaxy excited to leave with a match replica ball with the “China Life Insurance” logo on it.
Sometimes being a cynical American helps you portend the dystopian consumerist hellscape we’re rocketing towards.
J
Spurs in the cartel? Come on
Now we all love a good conspiracy theory and the Big 6 cartel is intriguing. I am assuming this cartel consists of the evils of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd and erm… Spurs?
The first 4 I can get along with as they appear to be well run, see the bends the rules can take, have a healthy amount of deranged fans, all the important things. United for their historical significance and they were the first to latch onto how to turn the PL into a pot of gold, but seeing as they bully the mid tier sides by paying exactly what they quote for their players I’m not sure they are the power they once were.
But Spurs, do they make the tea at the cartel meeting, bake a nice cake? They have a stadium but not much else, can’t be having them in the cartel.
Mel – Dublin, Berlin, Athlone Town (CL football back in the middle of Ireland!!)
Everton screwed it
Dear Ian EFC,
My sincere apologies for making my email all about my own club (isn’t that what all fans write about?) I genuinely tried to provide some insight into why a legacy club like Everton could find themselves where they do but anyway to satisfy your need for attention let’s talk some more about Everton.
Poor Everton with their 800mil pound stadium who are being kept out of the rich boys club at the top of the premier league.
And sorry also for drawing figures from the last time you were our business for comparison. Your own carefully selected figures (48mil in five years) suggest Everton have been operating on a shoestring and could not possibly invest the money in their squad to compete with those mean old cartels up top.
Well let’s look at a first team and squad composed of your clubs record signings to see if that logic stands up:
GK – Jordan Pickford 28.5m
CB – Michael Keane – 28.5m
CB – Yerry Mina – 30.25m
CB – Ben Godfrey – 27.5m
LW – Alex Iwobi – 30.4m
CM – Amadou Onana – 40m
CM – Glyfi Sigurdson – 49.4m
RW – Yannick Bolasie – 30m
FW – Richarlison – 39.2m
FW – Moise Kean – 27.5m
FW – Romelu Lukaku – 35.4m
Subs –
Davy Klassen – 27m
Jean Philippe Gbamin – 25m
Andre Gomes – 25m
Beto – 25m
Allan – 25m
Vitaliy Mykolenko – 23.5m
Morgan Schneirdelin – 23m
Theo Walcott – 22.5m
Total spent 541.65m.
Could there possibly be some clues there as to why Everton aren’t competing at the top of the league? I know I know self reflection and personal responsibility is anathema to the victim mentality but cmon, in plain man’s terms bar 4-5 decent players you’ve spent your money on a load of twaddle in the past decade.
That’s why you’re floundering Ian. That’s why well run clubs like Brentford, Brighton, Villa, Forest etc are leaving you in their wake. Top 6 is another world that you could be in and once were if your club ran itself properly but it doesn’t.
So you have a choice, play the victim and cry about cartels or pray your club gets its act together. When you had the money you wasted it. That’s why you are where you are. Truth hurts buddy and to quote Aimee Mann “it’s not going to stop, til you wise up”
Dave LFC
Somebody doesn’t want to be in the Bellends Mailbox
Usually I don’t respond to criticism because I’m happy to let people say whatever they want, whether its reasonable or that they just completely misunderstood what I’ve written, however, why am I being locked in the Bellends mailbox? My mail had nothing to do with Liverpool. And it smells in here…
Ed Ern
Why so positive?
Lewis, Busby Way, you have to look at the overall context of the women’s game to understand why it’s so upbeat, it’s a balancing act. England’s women’s team just won the Euros and yet they still face a deafening barrage of negativity from the dickiest of dickheads the internet has to offer. There is literally nothing they could do that would stop it, it’s more misogyny than anything to do with sporting ability.
When England won the cricket you didn’t see some convicted criminal message Joe Root’s father to tell him how shit his 10th over was, victory shuts them up. You don’t see Cricket365‘s (does that exist?) mailbox filled with mails declaring “Nobody cares about cricket”.
In the face of these unending attacks on successful players, the women’s football community have decided to fight hate with love. You could give an honest appraisal of Jess Carter’s game but should you? She’s bombarded with abuse, should you add to the volume, regardless of whether it’s honest or constructive? The human being doesn’t need to hear from you right now. The Euro winning player probably doesn’t ever need to hear your honest opinion on her game at any time to be fair.
The women’s game seems to be full of actual human beings, players who’ve been on the end of the endless negativity that pervades football in general. The thing is that the women seem to remember how that felt and want to balance it out. The men’s game chose a different path. The men’s game chose to appeal to the trolls. The men’s game is full of pundits who, despite knowing the pressures of top flight football personally, openly attack people who are going through the same things they went through. I know who I’d rather listen to.
SC, Belfast