Not content with pushing for the purchase of Alexander Isak on the cheap, the Liverpool PR machinery (which runs from fan sites all the way up to the official broadcaster apparently – so much for the impartiality of the Premier League!) has also constantly been trying to equate the Isak & Yoane Wissa situations.
While it’s true both strikers have gone on strike at their respective clubs and both situations are connected to Newcastle United, the commonality ends there.
Here’s a point by point detailing of why the two can’t be equated.
1) Liverpool’s media-fuelled Isak chase began at least in Dec 2024. The earliest recorded (at some point I began to ‘collect’ a record of all the nonsense trying to push Isak out the door) Arsenal transfer ‘articles’ began in Nov’24. The earliest I recorded of a Liverpool one was from the last New Year’s Eve (there may have been others earlier) from a website called Teamtalk.
Since then it was a near daily set of ‘articles’ through the January 2025 transfer window fishing/prospecting at the chance of getting him on the cheap (ironically the amount bandied about back then that they were willing to offer was £115m – £5m above what they actually offered three weeks back) then ebbed and restarted in the fortnight leading up to the League Cup final against us.
On the other hand, Newcastle United were not even actively looking at Yoane Wissa until late July 2025, after having missed their main targets and looking for alternatives. It wasn’t that Newcastle didn’t want/value him, they were looking for younger options first, who could potentially spend many more years at the club. Newcastle didn’t use the media to undermine him, instead went and straight away placed an official bid with Brentford.
2) Isak made two important statements in the Feb-Mar 2025 period during interviews:
A – When asked regarding a new contract he said that would be negotiated in the summer. Not staying silent or avoiding the question but saying it’d happen over the summer. He had 3.5 years left on his contract at that point.
B – He said that he could see Newcastle winning trophies and him being able to realise his dreams at the club, so he saw no need to move. This was immediately before the League Cup final and he gave a follow on statement after the win, stating that this proved what he said and was the first of many to come.
Thus he didn’t feel the need to move to a so called “bigger club” because he saw the pathway to winning the same trophies at Newcastle (even if it might take a bit more time and the numbers might be fewer). This is very important to establish, as it proves that his saga is about being able to earn much more money.
Yoane Wissa on the other hand had 1 year left on his contract in the summer with the option of another year’s extension. He’d already refused Brentford’s offer of negotiating a new contract.
3) Wissa said when going on strike end of July, that he had a verbal agreement with club officials that if a bid of £26m arrived for him and he wished to leave, the club would sanction it. Brentford officials have not denied this. Newcastle, understanding from rejected bids between £20-25m from Forest and Spurs that Brentford were looking for something extra, bid £26m + £4m in add-ons and it was rejected. Brentford then reportedly saying that they valued him at £40m then supposedly softening their stance and saying they’d let him go once they signed a replacement attacker.
Upon this communication, Wissa WENT BACK TO TRAINING with the team. After this weekend’s games when Brentford moved the goalposts and repriced him at £50-60m (when Newcastle supposedly verbally communicated a higher bid expected to be in the range of £30m + £5m in add-ons) he’s again supposedly gone on strike. But before that he REJOINED training and made himself available for the first game, though his manager decided against using him.
There was no understanding with Alexander Isak or a clause in his contract regarding a sale price and the media itself reported that Newcastle valued him at £150m or more.
NO club, including Liverpool, has submitted a bid anywhere even close to £150m. Given the prices being demanded for players in the current window, this constituted a below market value price. How can Newcastle United consider a sale if even that stated price is not being met? Yet Isak went on a self-imposed strike demanding he be allowed to move, purportedly at whatever price Liverpool offered and has held on to his stance even though no remotely decent bid has come in for him.
The two situations can only be equated if Newcastle bid £10m for Yoane Wissa and he stayed on strike asking Brentford to let him go at whatever price. Instead, Newcastle have been upping their bid for Wissa each time (latest one on Wednesday 20 August is £40m) even though they’re limited by PSR and the fact that he’ll have no resale value and they’d need to replace him within a few years, unlike Isak who has a good 7-8 years of playing at the top level left at 25 years.
4) Wissa has stated he saw this as his last chance to play in the Champions League and he saw Newcastle as the right club to do that with. His representatives communicated that wages and terms wouldn’t be an issue whatever was offered. His reasons for the move are footballing.
Alexander Isak, as shown above, was clear that footballing targets would be achieved, even at Newcastle. He wanted to be paid what he was worth in today’s market regardless of what the club could currently afford under PSR and has clearly pushed for a move due to the reported £300k/wk that Liverpool are supposedly offering him.
Given that Newcastle were reported to be willing to offer £200k/wk salary – making him the club’s highest earner by far – just like when he first arrived, he felt the £100k/wk gap too big to be bridged (Does beg the philosophical question of what can a person do on £300k/wk that he can’t on £200k/wk but that’s a wider discussion on the world of football players not living in the same world as the rest of us) in negotiations.
Everything the manager/club/team had done to propel him to being the best all-round striker in the world was not a consideration for him anymore. Neither was the effect his actions would have on the team which he’d helped become a regular top five/Champions League outfit.
Neither was the fact that at Liverpool his minutes/status (not top dog but below Salah/Van Dijk) and potentially goals (given that he wouldn’t be on penalties) wouldn’t match that at Newcastle. He’s also been careful to not put in a transfer request during the last five weeks he’s been on strike, which would reduce his money if a move happens, though that could change over the next 10 days.
A few general points without comparison of the two transfer sagas:
1) Newcastle haven’t put a media circus in place about how Brentford are holding them and Wissa to ransom, nor have they got Wissa to make disparaging statements regarding his current club to make the move happen. They’d be right if they did (on the ransom part), unlike Liverpool over Isak, but they’re just trying to make a deal happen even at an inflated price instead of getting the player for half-price (Liverpool: Wirtz £119m, Caicedo £105m bid, Coutinho £142m but Isak £110m).
2) Liverpool wouldn’t have stepped in to steal Ekitike (with a similar profile to Isak albeit few years behind in terms of achievement/performance) with a higher bid after Newcastle’s bid for him was accepted by Frankfurt (I do believe football’s legal rules are wrong if after a bid’s ACCEPTED by the seller (and the player – on wages) or their stated price is matched, someone else can come and match/increase it and the buyer is changed by the seller. This wouldn’t happen in any other product/service market if they believed at that moment that Isak, was going to come to Liverpool. Yet both before and after that deal, they kept pushing Isak to revolt against Newcastle. The objectives of this can only be to damage Newcastle’s preparation and/or get Isak on the cheap.
3) Isak has suddenly chosen to speak up officially for the first time, a few days before Newcastle host Liverpool. was he pushed to do it in so timely a fashion to try to damage Newcastle’s preparation for the fixture? Has the player/his agent been promised bonuses out of the money Liverpool might save on his transfer? I suspect a second incoming low bid around £120m+ add-ons is incoming this week and this statement was to make Newcastle give in (I’d propose a counter offer of £120m + Mamardashvili + Ekitike on loan with a forced buy at end of season for £70m saving both our former targets from 2+ years mostly on the bench).
4) Wissa’s price would drop drastically if he ran down his contract next summer and left on a free transfer/small fee in case of one year extension. But Newcastle might not be in Champions League next season and whoever is may not fancy taking on a near 30 year old. Isak on the other hand would still be
