According to the rumor mongers, Liverpool want Newcastle to either shit or get off the pot and determine whether or not to accept a record British transfer fee for their wantaway striker Alexander Isak by the end of the upcoming week. At least, that’s the story by Belgian transfer journalist Sacha Tavolieri.
Now, is this a credible rumor? Considering Tavolieri is not one of Liverpool’s trusted club connected journalists, nor is he Swedish, nor connected to Newcastle, this seems unlikely that he’d have a special scoop in this department.
That said, the report has a certain “truthiness” about it, which is to say that Liverpool are probably fed up with Newcastle stepping on every single rake in the transfer market, and would like them to sign someone for fuck’s sake, so they can in turn sell Isak.
There is also an underlying truth here: Liverpool need at least one more senior striker before the transfer window closes on September 1st. Federico Chiesa’s last-gasp heroics notwithstanding, Liverpool lack some firepower to bring off the bench, or to change things up when Plan A isn’t working.
Isak is still clearly Liverpool’s top priority. And their initial bid of £110 million was already bordering on a record British transfer fee, and the final figure—if it can be agreed upon—almost certainly will be. But equally, Liverpool simply cannot wait for Newcastle forever, and cannot risk going into the season with just four senior attackers, especially with Mohamed Salah unavailable for 6 crucial weeks because of AFCON.
Newcastle, understandably, do not want to sell Isak in time for Liverpool to register him to play against them next week. However, they have already handled this situtation horribly, and they very well could be left in the worst-case scenario: an unhappy, on-strike player, a subpar strike force, no immediate money for replacements, and still being forced to sell Isak in January or next summer for a reduced fee.
So seriously Newcastle, shit or get off the pot already.