According to SPORT, Newcastle United have named an asking price of £83m for star striker Alexander Isak as numerous suitors are vying for his signature.
The Magpies failed to secure themselves a spot inside the Premier League top four after taking a 4-0 thrashing away from their visit to the Etihad Stadium over the weekend.
Manchester City were in fine form on home turf, with new signing Omar Marmoush making his presence known with a 13-minute hat-trick in the first half, leaving Newcastle with little hope of getting back into the game.
Eddie Howe will be keen for his side to dust off the frustrating fixture fast, as there is still plenty of football left to play this season and more than one chance to give the supporters something to cheer about.
The North East giants have a Carabao Cup final to look forward to at Wembley Stadium against Liverpool next month, though Europe will be on their mind until the end of the season, winning a domestic trophy would be even more massive for the club.
Not only that, the summer transfer window presents an opportunity for the club to make their ambitions and intentions known to their competitors, especially if they can qualify for Champions League football.
Newcastle already have the foundations in their team, players who can be long-term competitors both domestically and in Europe with Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Sven Botman all highly-rated assets for the club.
However, today it is being reported by the Spanish news outlet SPORT that Newcastle have set an asking price of at least €100m (£83m) for any club interested in securing the services of Isak this summer.
The publication claims that Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are all interested in signing the 25-year-old ahead of next season.
Will Newcastle sell Alexander Isak?
There is no doubt that the Swedish striker would fetch Newcastle a fee that would break club records for a single transaction and would put them in a strong position financially.
However, if the club truly wants to compete at the levels they have outlined since the Saudi-led takeover then it would be massively counterproductive to sell him and even worse, to a club within the Premier League who Newcastle are intending to compete with for domestic trophies and league position.
Only Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland and Chris Wood have scored more Premier League goals than Isak this season, and it’s not just his goal-scoring that makes him the most sought-after strikers in Europe.
Over 23 Premier League appearances, Isak – once hailed “sensational” by Howe – has a scoring frequency of every 111 minutes, the second highest goal conversion in the league (26%) and has created a whopping 10 big chances, as well averaging 2.8 shots on goal, 1.6 key passes and 1.4 successful dribbles per game.
These reports out of the Spanish media has come just days after the Newcastle boss said in his press conference that he would not swap Isak for any other player.
Howe addressed questioning surrounding the striker’s future and his importance to the club’s future:
“I love working with Alex and I wouldn’t swap him for anyone,”
“We’ve got a good relationship and he’s got a good relationship with his team-mates. We’ve tried to help him by moulding our style of play to suit his game.”
“We have to try to keep our best players,” Howe added.
“That is crucial to our short-term success and our long-term success. Sitting here as the manager of the football club, we need to keep the group together and we need to add the other way.”
“We haven’t added in a long time, not in various transfer windows because of the reasons we have previously discussed. But we have to move the team forward and we have to keep our best players to do it.”
With that being said, the club behind-the-scenes might be tempted to cash in given the financial implications in the Premier League, something Newcastle have been the victims of over the last two years.
However, they also have a chance to prove they have moved on from their ‘selling club’ days by keeping their best players this summer and put themselves in conversations for trophies and success moving forward.
