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Newcastle manager Eddie Howe says there is no chance that Alexander Isak will be joining his Magpies teammates in Asia this week after he opted to stay in the UK rather than travel for preseason.
Losing 3-2 against Arsenal in Singapore, with Martin Odegaard scoring a late winner from the penalty spot, Newcastle boss Howe was inevitably asked about Isak at the final whistle. He insisted that there was no change in the situation from yesterday.
Liverpool, of course, holds an interest in the 25-year-old striker. The Reds have already registered their interest in signing him, and the player has since made it clear to his current club that he wants to move on.
"We’re not deluded," Howe said about his side's summer in general.
"We know we need to bring players in. We’ve known that. We know what we wanted. It’s been a challenging window."
Newcastle has brought in Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest for big money, but has failed with several other plans. It held an interest in Hugo Ekitike, for instance, but the French forward only had eyes for Liverpool.
"Of course, there are things going on behind the scenes," Howe had said on Saturday in a prematch press conference.
"Conversations that happen between Alex and myself and Alex and the club will stay private. Whatever happens has to be for the best of the club.
"There are no contract talks taking place. That will be for a later date, potentially. I certainly hope he stays. It's football, who knows what the future may bring."
After Liverpool lost 4-2 against AC Milan in Hong Kong, Arne Slot was also asked about transfers. While he didn't mention Isak specifically, the Reds boss did make clear that he was pleased with how things have unfolded so far this summer.
"I think what I’ve also said is I’m really happy with the squad we had," Slot said. "That’s what we also showed by not bringing in new players last season.
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"Now we won the league, but you can see everywhere around us — in the Premier League, but also we play in Europe, so we want to achieve things there as well — that all of these teams try to strengthen their squads. So, if you do the same as we did last year, we will probably not be able to win it again.
"So, we have to improve – the players that are still here and we’ve tried to bring new energy in but also ‘weapons’, as you called it, and I think the players we’ve brought in have shown already in the few times we have trained together and the games we’ve played.
"Now let’s wait how Hugo [Ekitike] is going to do that. Really pleased what we did until now, but already really pleased we kept the players that had an extended contract last season."
Liverpool.com says: Isak does appear likely to be on the move. Liverpool is set to allow Luis Diaz to move on to Bayern Munich and another attacker will need to come in as a result, even if Darwin Nunez stays.
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