Newcastle United have recruited very well during the PIF era.
For all the talk before the takeover about potentially signing all manner of fading superstars, the transfer story at Newcastle United has been very different since.
Indeed, owners PIF and the recruitment staff at St James’ Park have largely signed younger players with a point to prove, scouring the French, Spanish and Italian leagues as well as leaning on Premier League experience.
Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman arrived from Lyon and Lille respectively, while Sandro Tonali joined from AC Milan.
Clearly, none of those were exactly unearthed gems no one had ever heard about, but the fact is that it was Newcastle who took the risk to sign them before any other English giant.
Alexander Isak is also another fantastic example. Eddie Howe has admitted Newcastle took a risk on signing Isak, who had only ever really had one prolific season at Real Sociedad prior to his record-breaking move to Tyneside.
Newcastle paid a club-record of £63million for Isak, banking on his potential despite his initial struggles at Borussia Dortmund during his days as a talented yet raw wonderkid.
Frankly, that now looks to be a bargain. Isak has been hailed as “world class” after bagging 59 goals in 103 appearances for Newcastle and even that doesn’t tell the whole story as to the level of quality he brings.
Liverpool are interested in Isak but former Reds defender and current pundit Jamie Carragher has revealed some frustration.
- Who is Alexander Isak? The striker who burned his Newcastle United reputation to force £125m Liverpool transfer
Jamie Carragher says Liverpool must regret Alexander Isak decision
While the Premier League leaders have one of the best forwards in the world in Mohamed Salah, their options at centre-forward aren’t overly convincing.
Liverpool are interested in selling Darwin Nunez to Newcastle but it’s hard to see why Howe’s side would entertain such a deal given his unconvincing form since moving to England from Benfica.
Diogo Jota remains injury-prone too, prompting an awful lot of links between Liverpool and Isak.
However, Carragher simply does not believe his former club would pay the kind of money Newcastle would want for Isak.
Speaking on The Overlap US, he said: “Do I think Liverpool could buy Isak? I don’t, no.
“I’m not sure Liverpool would want to pay that type of money for one player. I don’t think it’s really in the model, I think Liverpool’s model is: ‘We’ll get the next Isak’.
“They’ll probably be kicking themselves saying: ‘Why didn’t we get Isak from Real Sociedad?’
“So, I don’t think they’ll go and absolutely break the bank for him.”
Alexander Isak has been haunting Liverpool for years
Newcastle finally beat Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final last month, with Isak scoring what proved to be the winning goal at Wembley.
That continued his fine personal record against the Reds. In six games against Liverpool, Isak has scored four goals.
| Games | Goals | Assists |
| 6 | 4 | 1 |
Admittedly he’s only been on the winning side once but, crucially, that came at Wembley as Newcastle ended a 70-year wait for a major domestic honour.
Newcastle know they could get record-breaking money for Isak but that does not mean he’s going anywhere.
Liverpool are surely going to have look elsewhere.
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