Konate said no to Saudi Pro league https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/foot...erpool-transfer-news-ibrahima-konate-35561502
Was listening to talkshite on the way home last night and listening to some right clowns ring in as usual. People who want to compare one deal to another and decide the fee should be 150, 180, 200. Newcastle cleans just making up random numbers while the presenter and pendent insulted Newcastle and isal about their size of club amd the only won a league cup. There has to be some reality put into this conversation A) isak is 25. He will be 26 come September. Instantly he is in the Gyokeres bracket not the wortz bracket. There's no resale value after a few years. Wirtz could be a superstar at age 24 and we could make our fee back. That the risk. B) Ekitike doesn't set a fee for anyone. What frankfurt wants is irrelevant as any other transfer as its a case of the art of the deal and the circumstances of the particular deal. Frankfurt set their price and wont budge. If Newcastle want to pay they can. If they dont they cant expect someone else to pay it for them. C) isak deal is also down to the player. There's not going to be a long queue but Newcastle can set a price or say no sale and stick to it. Isak has to say he wants to leave or not. That does end up having some bearing. D) the reason why isak is at Newcastle in the first place is he was in the position of a Ekitike or sesko. People were not convinced or willing to pay the big fee but Newcastle did take the risk and it paid off for them. Thry bought him young and now have resale value. see point A. E) isak has 3 years left on his deal apparently. Newcastle are well within their rights to dig in F) people keep going on about psr. Its irrelevant.
I love it that it’s our turn to spend big, although I still fear a surprise sale at the end of it all to balance the books.
I dont. But this is maybe a hangover from the fsg/klopp era and talk of moneyball and so forth and so on. We have the ability to spend to a certain level and have massive revenues the club worked hard to generate. Wirtz makes sense. 3 years of him and he becomed a global star then we can sell a 25 year old for 150mil or whatever. Isak is nearly 26. Theres no happy ending for that cash. You are buying him to win the CL and league. There wont be a resale value. I am still of the opinion that the next isak is out there and buying him and not isal makes most sense to moneyball. I think we need a cb and a cm and a 9. Buying the 9 might make sense But it has to be balanced. What we can say right now imo. Gk: Alisson, marmadashvilli, Woodman. (Let's not borrow problems here) Rb. Bradley, frimpong. Going to be a battle Lb. Kerkez, Robertson, tsimikas. One goes. Rcb. Konate, Gomez. Fat mess inbound. Lcb. Vvd. Nobody. Oh oh. 6. Gravenberch, endo. This still doesn't sit right. 6/8. Macallister, Jones. Jones ain't up to it there. Szoboszlai might move here. 10. Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Elliott, Jones can cover. This is rude good health So fsr this isn't bad at all. Would love a 6, would love a cb. Rw. Salah. Chiesa, cover from Elliott and Diaz, doakThis one position is waiting an upgrade in a seasons time. 9. Nunez, , diaz. Again we have really work to do here. Lw. Gakpo Diaz, Ngumoha again this is rude good health. Lfc dont actually need to sell konate or Diaz. If we want to run their contracts down I guess we could. Then theres the sell list thst seems to be well known. We are up to 137.5mil net spend. I thought 80mil based on the prior accounts and adding cl football. We are saying 257mil now to get isak before sales? Then you start wondering who is actually off. But look who I didn't really mention or places we have 3 players. Doak Morton Elliott Tsimikas Before we even talk about players slot might actually play. Alisson Bradley konate vvd kerkez Gravenberch macallister Salah wirtz gakpo Isak Marmadashvilli Frimpong gomez Robertson tsimikas Endo jones Chiesa szoboszlai Ngumoha Diaz Fat mess of a second 11 but they would never play like that. Only time will tell what we could afford to pay. Frimpong was a bargain and paid over time Kerkez was reasonable value. Wirtz was expensive but a potential superstar buy. If we only bought isak I'd need to see the concept for cb cover before predicting a season outcome. The squad shape by thr end of August will also be crucial.
Excellent summary of our present position on transfers. I would love to see Isak at Liverpool but it doesn’t make sense for us to spend that kind of money on a player with no resale value. But look at it from Isaks viewpoint. He has one decent contract left to maximise his income and what he can win in his career. It will be interesting to see if he signs a new contract at Newcastle
Newcastle signed him at 22 going on 23. And he is now 25 going on 26 They paid 55mil, nobody else was willing to go for him at the time. I recall people talking about him but it was.going to be some.levle of risk. They get the benefit of it. Double their moeny or more. He signed a 6 year deal so again very smart of them to lock him down long term. He took 120k a week which is good again for newcastle given his results. So Newcastle have played a blinder here by looking at the guy backing themselves and the player and its worked out for them. Us going in to get what is in effect a 26 year old has to be done to absolutely focus on winning trophies for 4 years and getting a huge output. There's no way arsenal will pay as much as Lisbon would like for Gyokeres and Gibson have even admitted that. This is kind of the same argument per Diaz. Bayern want Diaz. We have him on whatever wage and 45mil invested. We have him for 2 years and may be OK to say fine run the contract down. Newcastle can say exactly the same if they fell its best for them. If the Player wants to go then they need to discuss it with the club not the media and man up and offer their loyalty payments up to get their move. Players want their cake and eat it.
He’s not worth £150m to us. For that you want someone that’s going to bang in 30 prem goals a year for 5 years solid. Now he might do that but so far he’s hitting 20s. Mbuemo got 20 Wissa 19 watkins 16 Wood 20 Cunha 15 Strand Larsen 14 Mateta 14 Now not suggesting they are better players a clearly Isak has more to his game than just scoring goals. But with Salah Diaz gakpo Wirtz around a CF, don’t need someone that’s going to create tonnes of chances. You can find a cf who will hit 15-20 goals most season for reasonable value. Now once Salah goes and your 9 maybe becomes your main source of goals it becomes a different story.
Exactly. For the suggested sums, I'd want a Torres (good years) or Suarez type return. I'm not saying we wouldn't get that from Isak; with a stronger team around him I'd expect his figures to improve. But his injury record will make it impossible to hit the 30+ figures every year imo
Not everyone can be Harry kane by banging in goals for an average side. Some like salah will expolode in a top side and get there. Some like nunez wont. Isak has a history of groin strains. That's my issue as well as age. He could be fine. He could be the next torres to Chelsea. Who knows.
For 120mil I'd like a salah level contribution. Rock solid, build the side round, super star. I said at the start of the window that I wanted to see lfc build for the future. Frimpong, kerkez and wirtz is a marvellous stsrt to that. Seeing a line up with youf Marmadashvilli Frimpong Bradley Kerkez gravenberch szoboszlai Wirtz Gakpo All front line options thst are young Isak would fit with macallister and konate in the entering prime category with 4 years at the top.
I am also in the minority. I think he is injury prone, maybe due to his style of play. Some players pick up muscle/tendon injuries and due to their style of play, usually explosive pace, once they pick up an injury they are continuously suffering from it and miss a few games then play a few, breakdown again, rinse and repeat. Owen springs to mind with his hamstring injuries.
Talk of lfc contacting Frankfurt over Ekitike now. Do wonder if the fact he’s second choice behind Isak and lfc seem to be using him as a pawn in a game of chess might go against lfc and give Newcastle the upper hand by saying look we want you
Really we have to wonder. Is this Hughes style? Is this strategic? Is this all press talk? Only time will tell here. The assumption with wirtz was that Leverkusen were the ones briefing the press at every stage to apply pressure. But who knows now.
Personally I'd rather we sign a CB and a DM. In terms of forwards, I think if Diaz stays we're fine. If Diaz kicks up a fuss and we sell, then we probably would need a forward as well. Before Jota's death I think we could have managed with losing one forward (which I thought would be Nunez), but we can't have a summer where we lose 2. If we were to go for a forward I'd pick Rodrygo over Isak, just because I think he'd cost alittle less and he is slightly younger.
You're not in a minority at all (well, not a minority of one anyway). I think anything over £80m for Isak is getting into £115m for Caicedo territory. The Owen analogy is not lost on me. Then again, the Market has Entikite and Gykores at £80m+, and how much did United pay for Hojlund, FFS? (And us for Darwin, tbf). Isak is head and shoulders above all those. But as you allude to, he is older and more injury-prone than most of those.
