Liverpool need an Alexander Isak plan B or it will cost them the title

The Alexander Isak transfer saga has the potential to define Newcastle United and Liverpool’s season.

Today, it is Eddie Howe’s crisis. It could be Arne Slot’s soon.

Time is running out for the clubs to secure the firepower needed. If Isak is not a Liverpool player early next week, he and Slot must accept that it is not going to happen in this transfer window.

For all the praise of how Liverpool have conducted their business this summer – and no one is more admiring than me – the next few days are crucial to their title defence.

Slot will not defend the crown with only three out-and-out attackers of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike. They cannot carry the goalscoring burden without at least one more, preferably two, top-class operators across the front line, especially as Salah will be on Africa Cup of Nations duty in December.

Liverpool must be ruthless. It cannot be “Isak or no one”.

Whatever their plan B is, they need to start thinking about executing it. When Liverpool sold Luis Díaz, such is the trust in those in charge of their strategy there was an assumption they had a younger replacement lined up.

Obviously I would like to see the Swedish striker become a Liverpool player, but not at any cost, and the suggestion that the first £110m offer for Isak is “derisory” is divorced from reality.

If Liverpool bid more than £130 million, it is too much. You would want Kylian Mbappé for the fee.

From the moment Isak made his debut against Liverpool at Anfield, he has stood out, but there are concerns. Now 25, he is yet to prove he has the durability of Salah. He has failed to start 36 league games over his three seasons in England and 10 of his last 44 league goals were penalties. He would not be taking them at Anfield.

Liverpool knew from the outset how tough it would be to convince Newcastle to sell. Once Newcastle qualified for the Champions League, my instinct was the door shut. Newcastle have the power to resist because Isak has three years to run, and they can also anticipate big earnings from a European campaign, making such a sale unnecessary.

No matter what Isak wanted privately, there was a fair assumption it would be another 12 months before such a transfer was tolerable at St James’ Park.

Signing a new deal with the written guarantees Isak claims were made verbally would have forced the move in 2026.

Now it is carnage. Howe is currently without his best player, and reintegrating him has become more complicated after the understandably hostile reaction of Newcastle fans at Villa Park last weekend.

There is a big difference between the attitude of the hardcore, travelling supporters to the social media masses who give the impression they will change their mind with the weather.

When Howe heard those chants, the idea that Isak would be welcomed back into the fold like the prodigal son once the window closed felt far-fetched. Even if he stays, it could be weeks or months before he is playing. Isak’s subsequent incendiary statement felt like an act of desperation to initiate a divorce.

Howe is caught in the middle, rightly earning sympathy as he has built a fine side ready to take the next step.

It is easy for fans, or pundits, to say the club’s owners should refuse to buckle. For the greater good, the last thing the manager wants is one topic overshadowing every training session, press conference and match day.

Wantaway star players can contaminate a season. Isak has outgrown Newcastle like Fernando Torres had outgrown Liverpool in the summer of 2010. By the time he left for Chelsea the following January, there was a sense of relief that the saga was finally over.

Standing firm on Isak now may win a battle, but selling him and signing two strikers will make Newcastle better equipped for a Premier League and Champions League campaign. Howe knows that.

One of the reasons those recruits may not arrive is that Newcastle lost two sporting directors in 12 months and still have a vacancy. That has clearly affected their summer planning.

A club must be ready on and off the pitch to lure the world’s best talent. Time will tell if it would have made more sense to cash in on Isak sooner and use the funds to blow their rivals out of the water financially when bidding for the strikers they pursued earlier in the window. Missing out on one target could be considered unfortunate, losing so many suggests there is a bigger issue within their recruitment set-up.

Lack of self-awareness is beyond comprehension

Naturally, supporters will defend their own club’s position and pin all the responsibility on the player and representative. Liverpool will feel the full force of St James’ Park fury on Monday night, although other than attempting to sign a brilliant player, I am not sure what they have done wrong.

It is difficult to work out what is more difficult to swallow; the poor conduct of the rebel and his agent or the levels of hypocrisy and blinkeredness of some of those criticising or rationalising it.

There is absolutely no justification for Isak’s refusal to play for the club who are paying his wages. No matter how ambitious he is, or what promises he perceives to have been broken, the idea of a professional footballer being paid thousands a week and telling his employer he will not work is unacceptable. The lack of self-awareness of anyone acting like this is beyond my comprehension.

Supporters of the buying clubs are prepared to play mental gymnastics to tolerate conduct which – if it was their own star player – they would castigate. Witness Liverpool supporters’ response when Torres asked to go to Stamford Bridge and Philippe Coutinho tried to engineer his Barcelona move six months before it happened in 2018.

Raheem Sterling and his former agent tried all sorts of stunts to get him from Anfield to Manchester City in 2015. No one was more critical of their antics than me, which is why I will remain consistent whenever these situations arise. Whatever the outcome, Isak’s methods of trying to secure a move are not right.

Newcastle fans must not get too comfortable on the moral high ground

Comparisons have also been made between Liverpool fans’ response to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exit. They do not stack up.

Alexander-Arnold was an £80m, home-grown footballer who ran his contract down. If Newcastle sell this summer or next, they will get a massive fee for a striker who, until three years ago, had no connection to their city. That is a hefty consolation.

But before Newcastle fans get too comfortable on the moral high ground, they should appreciate how slippy it can be up there. It is extraordinary how in one breath supporters can condemn Isak’s behaviour while some (not all) remain silent on the conduct of Yoane Wissa, who is so eager to move to Newcastle he erased all Brentford references from his social media and is considered in the wrong state of mind to play for his club.

Newcastle have a valuation for Wissa in the same way Liverpool have one for Isak.

If one or both clubs fail to get what they want and need before September 1, they may end up paying a greater price if their season’s ambitions unravel.