The Mag
·1 mars 2025
Alexander Isak nonsense having to put up with – Beyond embarrassing

The Mag
·1 mars 2025
Eddie Howe was asked this week about how frustrated he was at the embarrassing nonsense that is made up by the media, claiming that his best players are in the process of agreeing moves to other clubs.
That question was sparked by some latest media rubbish wanting to claim Tino Livramento will be going to Manchester City.
Of course, the list has numerous names on it, Newcastle United players who are the subject of endless media made up stories, wanting to claim they will leave St James’ Park for ‘top’ clubs.
It is testament to the brilliant job Eddie Howe has done, both in terms of the quality of signings that have been made these past three years AND the work he has done with them on the training pitch.
If this United squad was populated by rubbish players, journalists wouldn’t be making up all these transfer tales because no ‘top’ clubs would be interested in these Newcastle United players.
Amongst those claimed to be set to leave any minute for a ‘better’ club are the likes of Sandro Tonali, Lewis Hall, Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and of course, Alexander Isak.
Summing up the embarrassing nonsense that is made up on a daily (hourly?) basis by these journalists (from home and abroad), is this classic rubbish.
Whilst of course I rely 99 percent on The Mag for my Newcastle United fix, I do occasionally have a glance at what is being said elsewhere about NUFC.
This means that at times, like many of you, I use an ‘aggregator’ site, which if you don’t recognise that term, is one of those sites where you put in your interest as ‘Newcastle United’ and then it gives you an ongoing list of Newcastle United headlines from various media, you click on the headline and got to the article.
Now I am just a normal fan who enjoys doing occasional articles for The Mag, plus I am not getting paid to say this, honest! However, I have to say that thank God (or whatever it is I believe in, or not) for The Mag, because the state of the media these days is truly woeful.
Anyway, the top and most read headline and article when I just had a look on a certain aggregator/headline site, was this corker from Barca Universal.
This is basically a site done by whoever, that puts up stories about Barcelona to try and get people clicking in.
This below is the top story for Newcastle United fans on this aggregator/headline site and this is some of what they included in this latest ‘exclusive’…
‘Alexander Isak has been on Barcelona’s radar for some time due to his exceptional technical skills, ability to link up with teammates both inside and outside the box, and his impressive goal-scoring form this season.
The club is actively exploring the market, particularly because they lack a reliable backup for Robert Lewandowski in the striker role.
The race is on
Barcelona know they are not the only ones interested, as Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United have all identified him as a key target. These Premier League giants see him as an ideal reinforcement for their attacking line-ups.
Beyond England, clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are also keeping a close eye on the Newcastle striker.’
Anyway, as well as this kind of standard rubbish above that these type of made up stories contain, there were these type of laughable claims in this latest Barca Universal piece…
‘Newcastle originally paid close to €90 million, including add-ons, to sign Isak from Real Sociedad.’
In the real world, Newcastle United didn’t pay €90m (approx £74.3m), they paid Real Sociedad at most a total of £63m (approx €76.3m), which was £59m plus £4m in potential add-ons back in August 2022.
Barcelona understand the chaos ahead in €75m-rated transfer war
So they claim this is a €75m (approx £61.9m) ‘rated transfer war’ for Alexander Isak. How does that make any sense at all? Attaching this nonsense headline amount when it is even less than the £63m Newcastle United paid for Isak two and a half years ago, since when he has now become rated one of the very best strikers/players in the world.
His salary, which currently stands at approximately €18 million gross per year, would likely increase if he moves to another club.
Yes, just make up more ‘facts’ why don’t you.
So Alexander Isak supposedly (according to these Barca fantasists) gets €18m (approx £14.86m) in salary per season at Newcastle United. That would work out at around £286,000 per week.
Alexander Isak doesn’t even get half that made up amount. Bruno Guimaraes is United’s best paid player and gets around half that.
Alexander Isak isn’t United’s best paid player but will be after this summer, when Newcastle United agree a new contract extension with him, though it still won’t mean our star striker will be getting around £15m a year, £300k a week.
In the future he may well do, if he and the club are successful and NUFC grows to what it can be, on and off the pitch.
The bottom line in all of these nonsense transfer fantasy reports, is that they almost all totally ignore the fact that all of Newcastle United’s very best players are on long contracts, Alexander Isak himself still has over three years on his and that will be extended in the summer.
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct
Direct