{"id":154822,"date":"2025-09-19T12:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154822\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T12:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:15:23","slug":"our-feeling-was-liverpool-chairman-explains-alexander-isak-signing-after-hugo-ekitike-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154822\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our Feeling Was\u2019\u2014Liverpool Chairman Explains Alexander Isak Signing After Hugo Ekitike Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has admitted the club were not initially planning to sign<\/a> both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 this summer.<\/p>\n

After failing with an initial approach to Newcastle United over Isak<\/a> worth a reported \u00a3120 million ($162.9 million), Liverpool quickly pivoted to beat the Magpies to Ekitik\u00e9 by striking a deal worth as much as \u00a379 million, after which Isak opted to go on strike to try and force through a move to Anfield.<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a> made it clear they would only return to the table for Isak if Newcastle made it clear they were prepared to negotiate, and it was only on the final day of the summer transfer window that the Swede\u2019s \u00a3125 million switch to Anfield was confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the It\u2019s Called Soccer<\/a> podcast, Werner confessed the club were more than happy to move forwards with Ekitik\u00e9 as their striker signing when the Isak deal was hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Newcastle<\/a> situation, obviously their club needed to find a replacement,\u201d Werner explained. \u201cWe thought we had a terrific financial offer for them, but he did have a contract with them that lasted for three more years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess our feeling was we had signed Ekitik\u00e9 to be a striker and we felt if it works, then that would be great, and if it doesn\u2019t work, there\u2019ll be another option at some point down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alexander<\/p>\n

Isak followed Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 to Anfield. \/ Clive Mason\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Deadline Day also saw Liverpool pursue a move for Crystal Palace defender Marc Gu\u00e9hi, who was given permission to undergo a medical after a \u00a335 million agreement was reached, only for Palace to pull the plug on the deal late on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know any more than the news media,\u201d Werner continued. \u201cI thought we were going to get the defender from Crystal Palace<\/a>! But I understood. Their club started [the season] very well, and their chairman, my counterpart, said, \u2018You know what, we can\u2019t afford\u2014whatever that means\u2014to lose him\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Ekitik\u00e9, Isak and Florian Wirtz as their headline signings, Liverpool oversaw the most expensive transfer window in history<\/a>\u2014an outlay Werner believes was necessary to retain the Premier League title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact of the matter is it\u2019s going to be very difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cAs much as all the pundits are saying we are going to win the league this year, you can see from our first four matches how competitive the league is. We have been resilient, we have been fortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I have learned, and we are relatively humble and modest about this, is we were very enthusiastic about changing the squad because it\u2019s very difficult to repeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a great intention to bring in new players, obviously to get better. As much as it has been talked about how much our spend was this year, we have been able to spend to the degree that we did so because we also sold a lot of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most encouraging things about that is we haven\u2019t clicked yet and I don\u2019t expect us to click right now. I do think part of what we have learned is that you can\u2019t just bring the same squad back. You need to bring in a new energy and new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ THE LATEST LIVERPOOL NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has admitted the club were not initially planning to sign both Alexander Isak and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-154822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}