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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has urged the Reds to ensure they have an alternative to Alexander Isak if the Newcastle United ace proves unattainable in the next few days.
So far, Newcastle has not relented on its stance that Isak will not be going anywhere, despite the player having missed pre-season. He is continuing to train alone and will be absent when Liverpool heads to St James' Park on Monday.
And while Isak made his intentions to leave publicly clear with a social media plea on Tuesday, Newcastle responded with a statement of its own that essentially said the conditions for a sale have not been met. Since then, there has been no sign of that changing, though that was never likely to happen before the two sides meet on matchday two.
"The Isak transfer saga has the potential to define Newcastle United and Liverpool’s season," Carragher wrote for The Telegraph. "Today, it is Eddie Howe’s crisis. It could be Arne Slot's soon.
"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."
Without Isak, Liverpool would definitely be short of options in attack. Even with him, there is a chance that the Reds would be lacking firepower having gone into last season with six senior forwards.
"Liverpool must be ruthless," Carragher continued. "It cannot be 'Isak or no one'.
"Whatever their plan B is, they need to start thinking about executing it. When Liverpool sold Luis Diaz, such is the trust in those in charge of their strategy there was an assumption they had a younger replacement lined up.
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"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 Mbappe for the fee."
Liverpool.com says: If Isak is impossible to bring in this summer, we have seen with Liverpool before that it will wait and get what it wants eventually. It happened, for instance, with Virgil van Dijk, and that was the right call in the long term.
The relationship between Isak and Newcastle will be very hard to fix, and these things usually only end one way. Pivoting to another target, however, could save Liverpool from falling short in the season to come if Isak was only to arrive in January or next summer.
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