Newcastle’s historically abysmal transfer window ends with Isak sale, Sesko setback and £50m Liverpool signing

A diabolical transfer window for Newcastle will get worse when they miss out on Benjamin Sesko and Yoane Wissa before signing a Liverpool player for £50m.

It is difficult to recall a more disastrous summer from a Premier League club than this effort from Newcastle. But it is easy to imagine it getting worse.

After the final game of the season, Eddie Howe previewed “a big transfer window” for his Magpies. He implored the club to be “dynamic” on targets and “conclude things very, very quickly because good players don’t hang around for long”.

“That’s always been my thought and my message on recruitment because you can have a period where you think you’ve got time, but then you can look around very quickly and realise that that time has elapsed and you have missed opportunities that you won’t get again,” he added.

August is on the horizon and Newcastle have been publicly and specifically turned down in favour of other clubs by Dean Huijsen, Matheus Cunha, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Bryan Mbeumo, Hugo Ekitike and James Trafford.

They face a battle to avoid missing out again to the weakest iteration of Manchester United the Premier League has ever seen, while Anthony Elanga was a potentially excellent signing but came neither cheaply nor under the nose of a rival club.

And that is before even considering the avoidable, inevitable mess surrounding the future of Alexander Isak in what was supposed to be a transformational summer.

It certainly felt like a critical juncture, as the frustration at no first-team signings in almost 700 days coalesced with the unmitigated joy of twin successes in winning a first trophy in 70 years and qualifying for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.

The foundations were in place for Newcastle to build; the overwhelming demand and expectation was that they could capitalise and perhaps even break the glass ceiling above them for good if they made the right decisions.

The reality has been a sustained and chastening two-month window of rejection, infuriating insularity, harsh truths over their transfer pull and a behind-the-scenes shambles which has translated to Newcastle arguably having a worse squad now, less than three weeks before the start of a season in which their numbers will be stretched across four debilitating competitions, than when the window opened.

Yet the spiral really can feasibly go further if these predictions for the rest of their summer prove in any way accurate.

Benjamin Sesko chooses Manchester United
While some scenarios might feel a little outlandish, Newcastle being rejected by a player in a straight shoot-out with a historically bad Manchester United would be painfully familiar.

Howe described “the power and pull of the Champions League” as “a selling point” once Newcastle’s return to the top table was confirmed, but Cunha and Mbeumo preferred the lack of European football on offer at Old Trafford when given the choice.

There are conflicting reports about which club Sesko is leaning towards, but the prospect of another defeat on that front for Newcastle is potentially ruinous having already been forced to move on to their second centre-forward target.

Losing a transfer fight with Liverpool over Ekitike was damaging; being undone yet again by wages and geography against a team which finished 10 places lower and who they have beaten five times in their last six meetings would be embarrassing.

Alexander Isak forces his Liverpool move
There have been no suggestions that Sesko is wanted by Newcastle to play alongside Isak, as was the case with Ekitike.

The Magpies remain adamant that they do not wish to sell Isak – although those public declarations from Howe have softened to a hilarious degree – yet Sesko has been categorised as a replacement rather than a complement to the wonderful striker they just about still own.

It should be noted that Newcastle still hold almost all the cards over Isak. The three years left on his contract will trump any pre-season tour squad omission and agreed personal terms with Liverpool, whose reported belief they can strike a deal at £120m might be shaken once both parties are sat at the negotiating table.

But if there was a sense that Isak had ‘checked out’ towards the end of a season in which his 27 goals delivered a trophy and Champions League qualification, Newcastle might be wary of keeping a player against his will.

Almost no club is above having their best player poached. Liverpool could not compete with the lure of Real Madrid over Trent Alexander-Arnold and their masterful reinvestment of the Philippe Coutinho windfall showed those clubs outside the handful at the top of the football food chain how best to operate.

Of course, Liverpool had the infrastructure behind them to take advantage of their circumstances; Newcastle’s recruitment team consists of the manager’s friends and actual family.

Brentford dig in over Yoane Wissa
It is always fun when supporters are reintroduced to that football food chain every six months.

Fans complain about having their best players unsettled and stolen by clubs a rung or two higher on the ladder, all while speculating over who they should pinch from one of the sides below as a replacement. The cycle of hypocrisy never changes.

Newcastle might be annoyed with Liverpool over Isak, but in the same vein Brentford cannot be pleased by how Wissa has had his head turned either.

And unlike Newcastle, Brentford have already had more parts of their machine plundered than they might have liked this summer. Sean Longstaff is not quite the equivalent of Thomas Frank, Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard, so the Bees’ reluctance to see another player go is understandable.

That position might be tested if Newcastle find and meet Wissa’s valuation but Brentford will only sell on their terms, much like the Magpies with their own shiny treasure.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin signs with Callum Wilson returning as back-up
Newcastle will not be foolish enough to end this summer without the addition of at least one new centre-forward, regardless of Isak’s whereabouts come September.

They have precisely two properly recognised strikers in a diminished squad – and Will Osula’s agent work is slightly more effective than anything Howe trusts him to do on the pitch.

Elanga and Anthony Gordon are options but it is one of many positions in which Newcastle most glaringly need reinforcements.

And when every other avenue has been explored and exhausted, they will no longer be able to put off fate itself. Calvert-Lewin oozes Newcastle No.9.

With Wilson returning on a pay-as-you-play deal to hoover up the rest of the minutes, Newcastle might have to wheel out Kevin Keegan to deliver an address to exasperated fans on the St James’ Park steps.

The panicked late striker bid
The three paragraphs in The Athletic’s long read analysing how the £80m move for Jean-Philippe Mateta collapsed as Newcastle left it too late despite identifying him as a possible target during internal talks over recruitment in March will be biblical.

A wonderfully underwhelming defender is signed
A new centre-half might be as pressing a transfer need as a centre-forward for Newcastle.

As enticing an idea as it is that Emil Krafth could fill in for Champions League trips to the Bernabeu or Nou Camp, the Magpies must fill out a pecking order which currently consists of 33 year olds Dan Burn and Fabian Schar, the perennially broken Sven Botman and chief cheerleader Jamaal Lascelles.

They might genuinely only be a couple of injuries away from Isaac Hayden coming into the picture.

The Isak sale will at least grant the necessary funds to make those defensive renovations and it will be interesting to hear how the £30m signing of Dara O’Shea is spun when Luke Edwards transcribes and publishes his chat with His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan without challenge.

Aaron Ramsdale joins
It is not a bad signing. Not really. An England international who made almost 100 appearances for an Arsenal side which established itself as a Premier League title challenger during his time as a starter is a fine candidate to compete for minutes in goal at a Newcastle team hoping to make that same transition.

But the optics are atrocious. Newcastle have missed out on a series of players, including a keeper they had targeted for over a year and had no competition to sign earlier in the summer before low-balling the selling club and seeing a new bidder emerge to wrap a deal up almost instantly.

Reacting to that setback by loaning a relegation specialist deemed not quite good enough for the elite level by a club Newcastle are aspiring to compete with, who the manager has worked with before, while glaring problems are laid bare throughout the rest of the squad, just adds to the wider perception of incompetence.

A marquee signing is made
It only seems right that in a summer defined by the narrow-minded targeting of domestic players they have almost universally missed out on due to opposition from bigger Premier League clubs, Newcastle would eventually feel compelled to look through the undesirables in those expensive squads.

There would be a quick glance at Manchester United before Alejandro Garnacho is ruled out due to his character, Jadon Sancho is dismissed because of his wages and Antony is eliminated due to his incorrigible being of Antony.

Chelsea have too many options to bother to look through. Arsenal don’t have enough and Spurs have their own problems to worry about first.

That leaves Manchester City and while James McAtee is a wonderful fit, the finances again do not work in favour of Jack Grealish, and Kalvin Phillips has had one too many damaging loans already.

But niceties with Liverpool could be extended to accommodate a Newcastle signing from Anfield, with industrious, honest and low-scoring Englishman Harvey Elliott a prime candidate for the role at £50m or so.

It would give Liverpool fans ammunition to suggest they actually signed Isak for about £100m. And Newcastle would obviously surrender to a buy-back clause and probably 85% sell-on fee or something.

Axel Disasi joins
Deadline day. Season-long loan. All of his wages covered. No buy option. Versatile defender (not great in multiple positions) with Premier and Champions League experience (being not quite good enough). And Newcastle asked for Trevoh Chalobah first but Chelsea blocked it. It is nailed on.