Liverpool reach Alexander Isak agreement with Newcastle

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 surpass the Premier League transfer record set by Liverpool’s purchase of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £116m earlier this summer.

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Isak will undergo a medical on Monday before completing his move.

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 publicly stated his desire to leave Newcastle and has not featured in the pre-season or any of the club’s first three Premier League games of the campaign..

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)

Isak is keen on a move to Anfield and on August 19 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.

The Athletic 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.

Isak trained individually with his former club, Real Sociedad, during that time and has not since returned to training with his team-mates back at Newcastle.

Before the defeat by Liverpool last Monday, 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.

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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.

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.”

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 ‘not for sale’ 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’s 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

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There is an argument to be made that Isak’s time on Tyneside had become untenable — largely due to his own actions. By essentially going on strike and 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 being met.

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). Seemingly, Liverpool are going to get Isak for significantly less than the figure Newcastle were demanding, even if it is still an eyewatering 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 Newcastle will be better off for putting an end to this epic, rather than allowing the harm to bleed into the season by to ensuring Howe is not asked about Isak at every press conference. But they have already allowed the situation to dominate the narrative for their entire summer when, if this was going to be the outcome, maybe it should have been agreed and resolved weeks ago, allowing 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)

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