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Liverpool's British transfer record signing of Alexander Isak from Newcastle United was a 'ridiculous' decision. That is the damning assessment of former Newcastle and Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt, who believes the circumstances surrounding the transfer were 'asking for trouble'.
Isak ultimately moved to the Reds after effectively downing tools on Tyneside to engineer a departure. He has been struggling with fitness ever since and remains without a goal in either the Premier League or the Champions League for his new club.
Following their Premier League title triumph last season, Liverpool has now suffered defeat in nine of their past 12 fixtures across all competitions – their poorest sequence of results in 71 years.
Isak is amongst several expensive summer acquisitions who have struggled to make an immediate impact at Anfield, but Butt maintains 'alarm bells' ought to have been sounding within the squad following the decision to pursue Isak given his behaviour during the summer at Newcastle, reports Chronicle Live.
He has also implied that approving the transfer despite those circumstances may have disrupted the squad harmony on Merseyside.
"I still think the Isak one, even though he did really well at Newcastle, I think the price tag for him was ridiculous," Butt told the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast.
"The circumstances were ridiculous and I do think when you bring people into a squad, if you upset the apple cart if you like, that squad had just won the league.
"If you bring a player in for that much money who has just kicked up such a fuss to leave a club that looked after him and, let's be honest, gave him a chance, that is alarm bells ringing for me.
"I don't care what anybody says and I understand why the lad wanted to leave Newcastle because Liverpool had just won the league but that is alarm bells ringing for me.
"I am telling you now if you start messing about with a squad's dynamic that has done so well the year before then you are asking for trouble.
"I know it is easy to sit here and say it in the aftermath but with Isak and the circumstances around it all, it is just never going to work.
"I might sit here in nine months' time and look like an absolute d--- for saying that if he goes and scores a load of goals, and I am sure he is very capable of doing that.
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"But I am telling you now, if you have got a proper squad built where you have each other's back, that squad will be tight. You won't all be best mates but when you affect a squad and affect it in a really dodgy way, in my opinion, you are asking for trouble.
"If I was sat in the changing room with a player who is a seven or eight out of 10 every week but a great lad I would rather have him in my team than someone who is a superstar and is nine out of 10 every week but is a complete d**k.
"By the way, I am not saying Isak is a d**k, I don't know his personality but there were certain dynamics around that transfer that just wasn't right.
"I have spoken to a few of the older [former] Liverpool players and they have said the same. After what has been said you wouldn't want to welcome him into your squad. No chance."
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