{"id":72225,"date":"2025-08-15T18:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/72225\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T18:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:33:07","slug":"not-in-my-hands-diplomatic-howe-has-lost-control-of-isaks-newcastle-future-newcastle-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/72225\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not in my hands\u2019: diplomatic Howe has lost control of Isak\u2019s Newcastle future | Newcastle United"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a player at Bournemouth and Portsmouth Eddie Howe<\/a> could invariably be found reading the foreign news pages of the broadsheets while travelling to matches on the team bus.<\/p>\n

More than two decades on, the Newcastle manager\u2019s ability to construct carefully worded sentences loaded with calibrated between-the-lines subtext make it easy to imagine him as some sort of international envoy.<\/p>\n

This skill set dictates that few Premier League counterparts can be better equipped to confront a problem such as Alexander Isak. Yet, behind a resolutely brave face, even Newcastle\u2019s manager\u00a0acknowledges, albeit tacitly, that he has lost control of the situation.<\/p>\n

The Sweden striker is so keen to force through a move to Liverpool that he has, in effect, gone on strike. After resisting overtures to be reintegrated with the squad, Isak continues to train alone <\/a>and, it is understood, will shortly be fined the maximum permissible two weeks\u2019 wages for making himself unavailable for Saturday\u2019s season opener at Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said many times I want Alex to train and play,\u201d Howe said on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve had those conversations with him.\u201d Pressed on whether Isak could rejoin the squad before the end of this month,\u00a0he shrugged. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cAlex will control\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how did it come to this? Isak, disgruntled at not receiving the pay rise he believed he had been promised during the summer of 2024, left plenty of clues about his mindset last season. In an BBC interview with Alan Shearer last winter and then before the Carabao Cup final the 25-year-old was noncommittal, to say the least, about his future.<\/p>\n

It would be inconceivable to think a manager as tuned-in as Howe would not have second-guessed his leading scorer\u2019s disillusion. In perhaps the most revealing moment of Friday\u2019s press conference he was asked whether, when Newcastle sealed Champions League qualification in May, he was confident of Isak fulfilling the three remaining years on his contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not thinking of any individual in that moment, so I can\u2019t really give an answer on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eddie Howe said of the standoff with Isak: \u2018No situation is ever as simple as it seems on the outside.\u2019 Photograph: Serena Taylor\/Newcastle United\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Then came a query as to why Newcastle had acted as if blind to Isak\u2019s unhappiness and potential for disruptive behaviour in June. Had they placed the striker on the market then, an auction would surely have unfolded. There would also have been more alternative attacking options for the board to\u00a0pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why you might think that,\u201d said Howe. \u201cBut no situation is ever as simple as it seems on the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

It rather provokes the question as to whether he had embraced reality while Newcastle\u2019s Saudi Arabian owners remained in denial and believed they could keep Isak for at least another year. Technically they can, but unhappy players do not make for harmonious, let alone winning, teams.<\/p>\n

Howe said of Isak, among other things, skipping the pre-season tour of Singapore and South Korea: \u201cI don\u2019t think it has been healthy for us. I don\u2019t deny that\u2019s been a big challenge. Alex, for me, is one of the best strikers in the world, if not the best. To miss him from your squad leaves a huge gap.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMorale was certainly affected early on during pre-season. It was a difficult period for us. There was nothing I could do to affect that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a player that good who is not part of your group it\u2019s difficult for the other players to fully understand it and to know how to react.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s been an acceptance we have to make the best of the situation; the atmosphere within the group has been very good in the last couple of weeks. I can\u2019t look you in the eye and say it\u2019s brought us closer together, but, sometimes, these things can unify you in a way you didn\u2019t know possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all Isak\u2019s rich attacking talent the road to reintegration is perilous. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can achieve anything with a squad that\u2019s not totally united and keen to represent the club,\u201d said Howe, pointedly. \u201cIn order for any player to play well you have to be in that mental place where you want to play. The league\u2019s so hard that, if you\u2019re not there, the games can become very difficult, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is that unless Liverpool<\/a> make an offer somewhere nearer Newcastle\u2019s \u00a3150m valuation of Isak than the \u00a3110m they have had rejected, the club is unlikely to sanction a sale.<\/p>\n

Liverpool are not expected to bid again until Newcastle sign at least one replacement. A deal for Brentford\u2019s Yoane Wissa is close<\/a>, but, for the moment, Howe is without a specialist striker. He will field a winger, Anthony Gordon, out of position at centre-forward against Villa.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex\u2019s situation\u2019s not in my hands,\u201d he said before turning typically diplomatic. \u201cBut I\u2019ll go with whatever hand I\u2019m dealt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a player at Bournemouth and Portsmouth Eddie Howe could invariably be found reading the foreign news pages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-72225","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\/72225","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=72225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}