Liverpool have agreed a British record £125m (€144.25m) deal to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle. The Premier League champions had a £110m offer rejected in August and since then the 25-year-old has not trained with or played for Newcastle, but in the final hours of the transfer window a deal has been reached to end the impasse.
The striker is set to undergo a medical on Monday, with Newcastle relenting by accepting the player does not want to play for them any longer. Eddie Howe’s side also announced the signing of the striker Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart on Saturday.
Isak was left out of Newcastle’s pre-season tour of Asia with what was said to be a thigh injury, but has been absent from the squad ever since and at one stage was training alone at his former club Real Sociedad.
He has accused the club of breaking a commitment that he could leave if a suitable offer came from a big club – though that now looks to have changed, with a £5m loyalty payment taking the deal up to as high as £130m.
He will become Liverpool’s eighth first-team signing of the summer, marking the second time they have broken their own transfer record following the £110m capture of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
In all their summer outlay now stands at around £416m.
Nicolas Jackson is a target for Newcastle as a replacement for Liverpool-bound Alexander Isak. Chelsea are open to selling the striker despite calling off a proposed loan move to Bayern Munich after Liam Delap suffered a hamstring injury against Fulham. Work is being done to see if a move to the north-east is possible for Jackson. Newcastle have also looked at Brentford’s Yoane Wissa and Wolves forward Jørgen Strand Larsen.
Away from the Isak business, Liverpool could raise more funds on deadline day by selling Harvey Elliott and Joe Gomez. Aston Villa have emerged as a potential destination for Elliott, whose first-team chances are likely to be squeezed further by Isak’s arrival, but they might need to sell Emi Buendía first.
Milan made a €15m offer for Gomez on Sunday night but, with complications arising in Liverpool’s pursuit of Marc Guéhi, the Premier League champions would be reluctant to sell the versatile defender at this stage.
Elsewhere, Aston Villa are in discussions with Manchester United over a deal for Jadon Sancho. The winger is out of favour at Old Trafford but has admirers at Villa Park. The structure of the proposal is unclear, with Villa thought to be pursuing a loan move. Sancho spent last season on loan at Chelsea and has not played for United in more than 12 months.
Interestingly, the 25-year-old rejected a move to join Evan Ferguson at Roma, which triggered the Serie A club signing Leon Bailey on loan from Villa earlier this window. Goalkeeper Emi Martínez was omitted from Villa’s squad on Sunday amid interest from United. Martínez is keen on the move but Villa will only sanction a sale if they get a replacement and the right price.
Manchester City have agreed the €14m transfer of Ederson to Fenerbahce but the deal is dependent on signing Gianluigi Donnarumma from Paris Saint-Germain for around €35m, or another elite goalkeeper as his replacement.
A deal is understood to be in place regarding Ederson’s move to the Turkish club but City are intent on securing Donnarumma’s arrival first. If the Italian cannot be secured the Brazilian will not be sold unless another top-class keeper can be signed. As the window closes at 7pm this may be unlikely.
Ederson, who is 32 and has a year left on his contract, has become unsettled at City while Donnarumma has been deemed surplus to requirements by Luis Enrique at PSG, the Spaniard signing Lille’s Lucas Chevalier last month to be his new No 1.
Sunderland have agreed a fee of around £20m with Ajax for Brian Brobbey. The 23-year-old Netherlands striker is on a flight to Newcastle from Amsterdam and will have a medical later this morning.
On Sunday evening, Sunderland agreed to a request from Chelsea to recall their loanee striker Marc Guiu to Stamford Bridge in the wake of Liam Delap’s injury. Brobbey will become Sunderland’s 13th signing of a very busy summer.
Burnley are set to complete the signing of midfielder Florentino Luís from Benfica on an initial loan deal. The Clarets will pay €2m (£1.7m) upfront with a €24m (£20.8m) obligation to buy next summer.
More to follow …