Club say they want to keep Isak but a move is now in both’s interests and Eddie Howe is best off chasing other targets
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s a general rule, it is almost always best to sleep on things before making important decisions or reacting to provocations. So why, at close to midnight on Tuesday, did Newcastle rush out a seemingly kneejerk response to Alexander Isak’s incendiary Instagram post claiming that, amid broken promises, his relationship with the club was over?
In a statement reflecting an appreciably tougher tone than at any time during this summer saga, Newcastle insisted no promises had been broken and that their intention is to keep Isak. The message was that the Sweden striker’s attempt to force a move to Liverpool had failed and he would need to end his one-man strike before being welcomed back to first-team training. The only problem is that while you can lead a horse to water it sometimes really is impossible to make them drink.
Even if – and right now it looks a pretty big if – Isak stops training alone and agrees to rejoin Newcastle’s first-team fold, how can Eddie Howe ever trust him again? Howe’s high-intensity, hard-pressing approach is extremely demanding and, if Isak is anything less than fully engaged, he will prove detrimental to the team. Yes, Isak is supremely gifted, but the standard in the Premier League and Champions League is so high even he is not capable of drifting through games.
