Arne Slot wasn’t really talking about Alexander Isak. Eddie Howe won’t be picking Alexander Isak. Isak isn’t happy with Newcastle. Newcastle aren’t happy with Isak or Liverpool. Newcastle don’t have a striker to start but the player operating instead of one could have gone to Liverpool last summer. Liverpool do have a striker and he is one Newcastle tried to sign this summer. The Alexander Isak derby will not feature Isak, but will be framed around him. Not so much by Slot, who got through a 15-minute press conference with a solitary, late mention of the forward he has tried to buy, but by the wider world.
When they meet at St James’ Park on Monday – which now looks a devilishly clever piece of planning by whoever draws up the fixture list – both sides will be without Isak. Newcastle will be without the £110m they could have banked by accepting Liverpool’s offer. Instead, they have an on-strike striker, accusing them of breaking promises, without specifying precisely who or exactly what was pledged, in Instagram posts.
