3 weeks ago
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As transfer plans go, Newcastle hasn’t exactly delivered a masterclass over the past week. In fact, its worst nightmare might be about to come true.
Just over seven days ago, the Magpies held ambitious thoughts of Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike playing alongside each other next season. A bid duly went in for the latter, only to be knocked back by Eintracht Frankfurt.
Since then, Liverpool has moved quickly to secure Ekitike in a deal that could end up being only slightly more than Newcastle bid in the first place. The dream of Isak and Ekitike playing alongside each other is still possible, although only at Anfield now.
Whatever the motivation was behind tabling that bid for Ekitike - whether Newcastle genuinely held ambitions of him playing with Isak, or if it was a ploy to ward Liverpool off their star striker - it now looks to have blown up in their faces.
According to the Daily Mail, Isak has told Newcastle he wants to explore a move elsewhere, and all the signs point to Liverpool still being interested.
It didn’t take a detective to work out that something was amiss with the Toon. First, there was Eddie Howe leaving Isak out of a friendly against Celtic at the weekend, with the decision taken after all of the recent speculation surrounding his future.
The biggest red flag - or green if you’re of a Liverpool persuasion - was still to come though, with the striker left out of Newcastle squad to tour Asia as the club cited a thigh injury. That sound you can hear is thousands of eyebrows being raised.
With Liverpool still well within its own PSR means, and the possibility of some serious cash being brought in from the sales of the likes of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott, there is every possibility of Isak landing at Anfield, and the Reds have the added advantage of knowing he wants to leave now.
That bid for Ekitike then could not have backfired more spectacularly then for Newcastle. Just over a week ago, Howe might have been dreaming of having one of the most feared frontlines in the Premier League. Now he could soon find himself without a senior No.9 with less than a month to go until the start of the new season.
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Ekitike's arrival at Liverpool was greeted by some rival fans with derision. In their eyes, the Reds had to go with their tail tucked between their legs to their plan B after being palmed off by Newcastle.
Less than 24 hours later, and we're starting to see the effect the pull of the Premier League champions has truly had. The best case scenario for Newcastle now is it has an unhappy player on its hands next season, and chances are he wouldn't be sticking around for long thereafter.
Meanwhile, Liverpool's worst case scenario is it goes into the new season with just the one new striker, having already transformed itself with a host of major signings. It's easy to see now who the real winners are going to be in this saga.
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