Has Alexander Isak's stroppy summer move done buyer or seller any favours?

Ask any Premier League fan on the street for their standout moment of this summer's bumper transfer window and you'd better be prepared for one pretty repetitive answer. Alexander Isak's protracted, at times painful, move from Newcastle United to Liverpool for a £125 million British record fee was the story that defined a summer of unprecedented spending across the world's most lucrative league. More notable than the astronomical figures involved, or Isak's status as one of the world's most feared strikers, however, was the nature of the move itself...

From early on in the window, it was clear that Newcastle's Swedish sensation wasn't all fine with life on the Tyne. Fresh from a stellar 2024-25 season for Isak, which had featured 27 goals in all competitions, including the strike that sealed League Cup glory for the Magpies (against Liverpool, of course) in March and the club's first domestic trophy in 70 years, all seemed rosy. That was until 24th June, when reports emerged that Isak had informed Newcastle that he wished to explore a move to another club. Newly crowned champions Liverpool quickly emerged as the striker's desired destination, and from that point on things began to turn ugly...

Alarm bells were raised in late July when Isak failed to join up with Newcastle for their pre-season tour of Asia, and was seen training alone with his former club Real Sociedad. In mid August, the forward then went on strike, ruling himself out of the Magpie's opening weekend Premier League visit to Aston Villa. Following the striker releasing a damning public statement criticising the club's handling of the increasingly toxic situation, Isak effectively created a scenario that forced both Newcastle and Liverpool's transfer windows into chaos, with other clubs also being drawn in to this most drawn out of sagas. By the time the Swede's Anfield move was finally completed on 1st September, it appeared that both parties could at least move on and focus on making successful starts to the season. It hasn't quite turned out like that in either camp...

For Newcastle, the growing inevitability of their star striker's exit had forced them into a summer of emergency transfer action to find a new forward of a similar calibre (somewhat difficult...). Funds for such a move remained largely limited for several months whilst the Magpies fought to keep hold of the wantaway Isak, leading to a series of botched approaches for elite marksmen that amounted only to severe frustration, as well as ridicule from some quarters. Most prominently, a July attempt to sign highly rated Eintracht Frankfurt forward Hugo Ekitike fell through when the French striker favoured a move elsewhere in the Premier League, ironically to Liverpool. Only in the window's dying stages, when it became clear that Isak was indeed following Ekitike down to Merseyside, were the Magpies able to secure the cut-price signings of Nick Woltemade of Stuttgart and Yoanne Wissa of Brentford. A solution, for sure, but not ideal...

2025/26 hasn't become any more straightforward for the Magpies since the summer window slammed shut. Despite a largely strong start to their Champions League campaign, Newcastle's league form has been patchy at best. Even after a morale boosting 2-1 success over Manchester City last Saturday, Eddie Howe's men find themselves marooned in 14th place in the fledgling Premier League table (an agonising 6 places and 4 points behind fierce rivals Sunderland...), having collected just 4 victories from 12 games. And although Woltemade's start to life at St James' Park has been extremely encouraging, netting 6 goals in his first 14 appearances and looking every inch a future Gallowgate cult hero, a long term injury to Wissa means that the pair have yet to be able to link up as what could be an interesting double act.

For Magpies fans, there's also the emotional impact of seeing a figure who's proven so pivotal to Newcastle's success over the past couple of seasons suddenly up sticks and abandon any perceived sense of loyalty to join a domestic rival. Alongside boss Eddie Howe, Isak has been perhaps THE face of Newcastle's on-field resurgence in the first few years under their new Saudi ownership. Suddenly, for many fans at least, the Swede's reputation is in tatters and his image has transformed from Tyneside hero into callous traitor. The warm glow of the club's first domestic trophy win in 7 decades back in March still shines bright, but Isak's iconic winning goal at Wembley will now make for bittersweet viewing for a large portion of the St James' Park fanbase...

As for the team that were downed in that League Cup showpiece last season, an already extremely active summer window for Liverpool was thrown into confusion when Isak registered interest in joining the champions. A nice problem to have, admittedly, but Isak's huge purchase price necessitated the sales of further first team names such as Luis Diaz, and important squad players like Darwin Nunez, to add to several incomings including Ekitike and German forward Florian Wirtz, and of course the tragic loss of Diogo Jota earlier in the summer. The result was a forward line, and wider squad, that looked glaringly different at the new campaign's outset in August to the one that won the title for the club in 2024/25. Isak's arrival in particular represented major cause for excitement, but the striker has since turned into an unmistakably unsettling and destabilising influence on a team already at risk of losing its balance.

On the pitch, Liverpool's embryonic campaign started promisingly, but has since dissolved to the verge of a fully-blown crisis that has put head coach Arne Slot under growing pressure. A spell of late wins in the early weeks of the season, including against Newcastle themselves on the Red's trip to St James' Park back in August, only preceded a horrendous streak of 6 Premier League defeats in 7 games, and 9 losses out of 12 in all competitions. In that time, Isak has netted just a solitary goal, in a League Cup third round tie at home to Championship Southampton, and looked like a largely peripheral figure. As ridiculous as the question would have sounded a few months ago, it's becoming increasingly valid - was Isak's purchase the moment that tipped the Red's summer window from a busy yet productive one into a chaotic and disruptive one?

For starters, Liverpool now have three high-quality out-and-out forwards who in the vast majority of teams would be looking to lead the line on their own - Isak, Ekitike and of course the talismanic Mo Salah. Is there any logical way to get them all playing at their best together in the same team? Probably not. That therefore leaves Arne Slot with the unenviable task of leaving at least one of the talented trio on the bench regularly or rotating between them. The promising Ekitike is possibly the least individually minded of the three strikers, but even he may baulk at the idea of being brought into Anfield for £79 million and then asked to watch from the dugout. As for Isak & Salah, both could both be described as rare solo artists in a squad largely designed to forge a strong team dynamic, and are unlikely to be keen to share the limelight with each other...

It has certainly seemed an uneasy mixture thus far, and coupled with similar upheaval and adaption in other areas of the team, it's not hard to see how Isak's arrival could have contributed towards upsetting what was a finely tuned team unit throughout the last campaign. It's also worth questioning whether the excruciating, snail-like nature of the striker's summer move hindered Slot's pre-season tactical planning. Whilst Isak's precocious talents would be welcome in any side, he doesn't appear to be a man that the Dutchman specifically planned to bring in during the summer, leaving the Reds in a difficult position when they became forced to choose between a cohesive team plan or shoehorning one of the world's leading strikers into the side. It might have seemed an offer too good to refuse, but, with Isak intent on a move to Anfield whatever the cost, what other choice did the champions have other than to roll out their summer plans into a red carpet for the Swede?

In short, the impression three months on from one of the most memorable transfers in Premier League history is of two teams hampered by one man's determination to push his own career in the direction he wanted to. The likelihood over the course of a long 10 month campaign is that both sides will start to improve, settle into their new realities and start to win more games. Isak should eventually find his feet on Merseyside once a formation that suits his strengths is settled upon, whereas the Magpies will likely begin to fly once the Wissa and Woltemade combination is able to link up together.

There is, however, a bigger question here, and it goes a long way to determining how you view the morals and power dynamics of modern football. Is it right for two teams to struggle just to satisfy the wants, desires and ambitions of a player who simply refuses to take no for an answer?