Alexander Isak’s escape from Newcastle United[1] was conducted with the determination of a desperate man.
It brought an end to a summer in the north-east when the club was rejected by one elite player after another and St James’ Park became a no-go zone for the superstars of the game who many fans had expected to flock there when Saudi Arabia bought the club.
Maybe it’s a bone-saw thing. It is natural to speculate whether, at some level, the greatest players might wonder if it is good for their image to play for a nation state that chops political opponents into pieces and puts them in bin-liners and which, only two weeks ago, executed a man for taking part in Arab Spring protests when he was 16 years old.
Humanitarian concerns have not stopped Lionel Messi[2] becoming an ambassador for Saudi tourism and nor have they prevented Cristiano Ronaldo[3] from becoming the face of the Saudi Pro League as the star of Al-Nassr[4]. Maybe most players – like most people outside the game – do not give too much thought about where the money is coming from.
On one level, the spate of rejections is mystifying. Newcastle have a fine manager in Eddie Howe[5] and they have one of the most committed and fanatical armies of supporters in the country and one of the best stadiums. I was at the game against Liverpool[6] at St James’ Park last month and it was the best atmosphere I’ve heard at an English ground for a long time.
But what is impossible to deny is that a procession of the most highly-rated footballers of the summer including Joao Pedro, Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike turned their backs on a move to the north-east amid questions about quite what has happened to Saudi ambitions for Howe’s team.
Alexander Isak’s escape from Newcastle United was conducted with the determination of a desperate man
Eddie Howe’s side were turned down by a string of top quality players in the summer window
By now, many of those who once boasted that Newcastle were the richest club in the world and foresaw a line-up featuring Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski and Neymar Jr, expected them to be title challengers and contenders for the Champions League trophy.
Instead, the way that the Saudis surrendered to Isak and caved in to Liverpool’s financial offer for their best player has redrawn the view of Newcastle: they might have the richest owners in world football but they are still a selling club.
For all their aspirations of becoming a part of the elite, the sale of Isak shows that they are still very much a second-tier team. The departure of the Swede, in fact, asks far wider questions about the Saudis’ commitment to Newcastle.
Their arrival was supposed to mark the end of them playing second fiddle to Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United but even though there has been considerable progress, that progress appears to have stalled well short of the summit.
There has been precious little investment in the training ground. It is the same story with St James’ Park, which is a magnificent arena but an arena in need of modernisation. There has been talk of building a new ground but nothing more.
Good players have arrived this summer. Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey are both fine recruits who will improve the team but paying £55m for 29-year-old Yoane Wissa from Brentford smacks of desperation and paying £65m for the unproven Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart is a big gamble.
The revisionism that insists that, actually, Newcastle have had a good transfer window is delusional. They have lost their best player and their status as one of the up-and-coming teams in the league has taken a huge hit.
Isak’s emergence as the most feared striker in the Premier League was supposed to be the start of something but instead his exit, which was conducted with an utter absence of class and respect for fans who adored him, is a significant blow to Newcastle’s ambitions.
For Newcastle fans thinking the backing of the Saudi state would redress the balance of English football, this summer has been a wake-up call
It is partly the example it sets. Why would another elite player want to go to the club when he sees that the hierarchy of the English game still places Newcastle outside the top echelon? Why would another elite player want to go to the north-east when he sees Isak so keen to force his way out that he trashes his reputation in the process?
Many believed that, if nothing else, the Saudis would at least have the strength, the resolve and the wealth to hold Isak to his contract and make a statement that Newcastle were no longer a team that was a feeder club for the elite. That did not happen.
Some Newcastle fans must be wondering whether it was all worth it. Lionising the Saudi owners has come at a heavy cost to the wider reputation of the club and even if they won the Carabao Cup last season, the pursuit of the biggest trophies has been thrown into doubt by the events of this summer.
The supporters disliked former owner Mike Ashley so much because they felt he had settled for mediocrity. The sale of Isak, and the refusal of so many elite players to countenance joining them, means they are entitled to harbour the same fears about the Saudis.
References
- ^ Newcastle United (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Lionel Messi (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Cristiano Ronaldo (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Al-Nassr (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Eddie Howe (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Liverpool (www.dailymail.co.uk)