Alexander Isak has ‘rejected’ an extraordinarily lucrative contract to leave Newcastle this summer as Liverpool prepare a British club-record offer for the striker.
Isak told Newcastle on Thursday that he wants to leave the club after not boarding the flight to Singapore with his teammates for their pre-season tour.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reiterated the Swede’s stance on his YouTube channel on Sunday: “I can confirm that the decision has been made on player side. Alexander Isak wants to leave Newcastle this summer. The player has been clear with the club this week, after having several conversations with his agents to make a final decision on his future. Now, Alexander is very clear. He wants to go.”
Romano added: “First point, he feels that now there is a really important club like Liverpool competing to win every single title next season with a fantastic squad, offering the opportunity to put important money on the table.”
Al Hilal have put very important money on the table in an attempt to steal a march on Liverpool, according to Spanish outlet Fichajes.
The ‘delirious’ Saudi Pro League side have offered Isak €35m [£30.6m] per season, which works out to around £570,000 per week, and a signing bonus of €16m [£14m], but as the report details, the contract ‘goes much further’.
The ‘secret bonuses’ include €34k [£29k] per goal, €21k [£18.4k] for each assist, while Isak will pocket €4m [£3.5m] for each title AL Hilal win, €4.3m [£3.8m] if they claim the Asian Champions League and €2m [£1.75m] if he finishes the season as top goalscorer in the Saudi Pro League.
He will also be given €137k [£120k] of ‘personal expenses’ per month, along with a house and a driver.
But Isak has ‘rejected’ that ‘crazy contract’ as Liverpool ‘ready’ their own huge bid, though surely nothing close to that Saudi offer.
The Daily Mail’s Craig Hope revealed on Friday: “My information is that Liverpool are readying a British club-record offer. Alexander Isak and his people know this, he’s at home on Tyneside nursing his thigh, but you guys read between the lines.
“These are some of the conversations I’ve had this morning with people close to the situation.
“There is always a good time to sell a player and while the preference is to keep Alexander Isak, but Isak himself wants to move on, he doesn’t want to play in the UCL, he wants to win it.
“If Liverpool are going to do a deal this summer, they’re going to have to pay the money. They really are. There’s no, just because Isak wants to go, cheap deal to be done here.
“They’ve got to come up with that British record and then some. It’s got to be in the region of £150m. If that happens, do I think we’d see a deal and Isak will move? Yes, I do. And I know that some of his teammates suspect that too.
“I’m not going to sit on the fence here and I’m happy to be wrong, but do I think he will go? Yes, I think he probably will. A lot still needs to happen for that to be the case, but my latest information is that: Alexander Isak wants to go, Liverpool want him, they are readying a British record offer, even though that may involve selling one of Diaz or Nunez. If that’s the case, Newcastle have a decision to make.
“They’d rather not sell and find a way to keep the player, but it might just make sense all round to do the deal. So, that’s where we are.”
Hope then revealed on Sunday that Isak was ‘furious’ with sporting director Paul Mitchell – who left his role at the end of June – after the Magpies ‘reneged on’ a new contract last summer.
Hope wrote: ‘The Swede was told that the salary he wanted, and expected, would not be forthcoming. An accountancy decision, yes, but one that failed to account for the human reaction at the other end of it.
‘Isak was said to be furious and, when Eddie Howe spoke last season of ‘an unsettled dressing room’ coming out of the summer, this was no doubt one of the grievances within it.’
Hope adds that ‘there was a feeling among some that he was starting to check out’ after he pulled out of their match against Arsenal towards the end of the season ‘citing muscle fatigue’.