With Liverpool and Al Hilal agreeing a transfer fee for Darwin Nuñez, the Reds head into the final month of the summer transfer window knowing that they must sign another top attacker as they prepare for a Premier League title defence in 2025-26. Their dream target is no secret, it’s Newcastle’s Alexander Isak.
Newcastle, though, are struggling to find a replacement, and that could make an already difficult transfer deal even harder—no matter how untenable Isak remaining at Newcastle now seems. And it seems pretty untenable, with news today that the player has returned to training at the club’s facilities but has been isolated from his current teammates.
According to reports from the north-east, following Newcastle’s return from their Asian pre-season tour—a tour Isak didn’t join, complaining of a thigh issue even as scans showed no damage—manager Eddie Howe has sent the striker to train and rehab on his own after the first team finishes their day at Newcastle’s Darsley Park training grounds.
Meanwhile, it appears Newcastle have missed on another striker target, with Benjamin Šeško now appearing to be on the verge of joining Manchester United. The rumour mill has turned its attention next to Chelsea spare part Nicolas Jackson, but time is running out for The Magpies to source a replacement and they keep getting further down their target list.
A failure to sign a suitable replacement is likely all that stops Liverpool getting an Isak deal across the line at this stage, but given how the window has played out for Newcastle that seems an increasingly plausible outcome—and with Nuñez on his way to join Al Hilal, Liverpool very much do need to sign another forward.
For a club looking to defend the Premier League title and play more than 60 games in 2025-26, carrying just three established senior forwards in Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Hugo Ekitike along with unfavoured—and himself also likely to depart—Federico Chiesa and promising youngster Rio Ngumoha would seem to be a situation primed for failure.
