Follow live coverage of transfer deadline day today
Liverpool have reached an agreement to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.
The deal is worth £130million ($176m) to Newcastle due to solidarity payments and will cost Liverpool £125m. It will set a new Premier League transfer record, surpassing Chelsea’s £106m signing of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in January 2023. Liverpool’s purchase of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen earlier this summer amounted to a total package of £116m, with an initial fee of £100m and £16m in potential bonuses.
Isak will undergo a medical on Monday before completing his move on a six-year deal.
The Athletic reported earlier on Sunday that talks regarding Isak’s potential Liverpool move were ramping up ahead of the transfer deadline.
The reigning Premier League champions previously saw an offer of a £110m for the 25-year-old rejected by the north-east club, having previously indicated their willingness to do a deal for £120m.
Isak did not feature in Newcastle’s pre-season, nor any of the club’s first three Premier League games of the campaign, one of which was a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool at St James’ Park.
Newcastle’s stance had consistently been that the Sweden international was not for sale but sources with knowledge of the situation, not permitted to speak publicly, indicate they have been proceeding in recent days under the impression the move will happen.
On Saturday, they completed the club-record €75m signing of Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart and have seen two bids of £50m and £55m for Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jorgen Strand Larsen rejected. They previously pursued Hugo Ekitike before he ultimately opted to join Liverpool.
Woltemade is Newcastle’s new record signing (Jack Thomas/Getty Images)
The Athletic first reported in July that Isak wanted to leave Newcastle this summer, which led to his absence from the pre-season friendly at Celtic and tour to Asia. The striker trained individually with his former club, Real Sociedad, during that time and never returned to training with his team-mates back at Newcastle.
On August 19, Isak published a statement in which he said his relationship with Newcastle “can’t continue”. In response, Newcastle released a statement of their own, saying that the criteria for a sale had not been met and they remained open to Isak rejoining the squad.
Before the defeat by Liverpool on August 25, a boardroom-level delegation — including Jamie Reuben, the club’s minority owner, and a contingent from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), including Jacobo Solis, who is on the board of directors — visited Isak at his home for talks.
Speaking after the Liverpool game, Howe called for “clarity” and said he is focussed on the players “that want to play” for the club.
“I’ve not been party to talks on this for a long time now. I’ve been preparing the team and giving all my energy to the players that want to play for Newcastle. I think that is where my energy is best put at the moment,” Howe said.
“We want clarity, we want to move forward, we want the narrative to change because we’re in the start of the season now.”
Isak scored 27 goals in 42 appearances for Eddie Howe’s side last season, only finishing behind Mohamed Salah in the Premier League goalscoring charts.
Liverpool have spent more than £250m this summer with Ekitike, Wirtz, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni all arriving on Merseyside.
They have opened their title defence with three wins, 4-2 over Bournemouth on August 15, the 3-2 stoppage-time victory over Newcastle, and a 1-0 victory over Arsenal earlier on Sunday.
‘It was Isak or no-one for Liverpool’
Analysis by Liverpool correspondent James Pearce
Having played the waiting game throughout August, Liverpool have now reignited their pursuit of Alexander Isak.
It was telling in recent weeks that they didn’t move on to a Plan B after seeing their initial offer of £110m for the Swedish striker turned down.
It was Isak or no-one for the Premier League champions. They sat tight hoping that Newcastle’s stance would change, in the knowledge that Isak was desperate to make the move to Anfield.
And now there’s a deal to be struck they have moved quickly to try and make Isak the most expensive signing in the history of British football.
They believe he is the most complete No 9 around and Isak will give them the greater depth they crave at the top end of the field.
‘Howe must repair damage from draining saga’
Analysis by Newcastle correspondent Chris Waugh
There is an argument to be made that Isak’s time on Tyneside had become untenable — largely due to his own actions. After he essentially went on strike, infuriating the fanbase as well as some of his own team-mates, there would have been significant collateral damage moving forward, even if Eddie Howe’s stated confidence that he could reintegrate Isak had proved prescient.
However, it is hard to shake off the impression that Newcastle have buckled at the last. They have held an extremely strong stance all summer, from the ownership down, insisting repeatedly that Isak was “not for sale”. Even their statement in response to Isak’s incendiary public remarks stressed they would only sanction an exit if “conditions” were met, one of which was their £150million asking price.
Howe now has damage to repair at St James’ Park (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Woltemade may have joined, satisfying one of those stipulations, but a second striker is yet to arrive (even if Newcastle have continued to pursue other centre-forward targets and may still bring in another). Liverpool are seemingly going to get Isak for significantly less than the figure Newcastle were demanding, even if it is still an eye-watering fee.
Howe has claimed for weeks that ultimately the decision lies with the ownership and, while Jamie Reuben, the minority investor, was among the delegation who went to Isak’s house last Monday, it is the majority stakeholders, PIF, who determine such huge calls. Newcastle’s apparently unequivocal rhetoric has, in the end, proven to have been at least partly hyperbolic.
Perhaps the club will be better off for putting an end to this epic, rather than allowing the harm to bleed into the season by leaving Howe to be asked about Isak at every press conference. But they have already allowed the situation to dominate their entire summer, when if this was going to be the outcome, maybe it should have been agreed and resolved weeks ago to allow everyone to move on and focus on the future.
As usual, it is Howe who must repair the damage from this draining saga.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
