“This is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We want to make sure that we are behaving like one.” Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan.
You are, Billy. You are blowing the rest out of the water.
Forgive the repetition, but ‘Alexander Isak’ was where last week’s column ended, and it’s where this one starts.
Back then, signing Newcastle’s Swedish striker was just a dream for a few insatiable Kopites.
This week, the prospect is very real – and has the rest of the English Premier League (EPL) rattled – Newcastle especially.
And it’s all within the rules of financial fair play!
Being owned by the £800 billion Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), you’d think the Magpies were also one of the big boys.
But it’s Reds fans who are having to pinch themselves right now.
Coming on top of paying £69m for Hugo Ekitike, as everyone thought, because Isak was not available, Liverpool could soon have two No.9s.
More than anything, this shows player power. It may also spark a transfer merry-go-round and confirms that the No.9 role has regained popularity.
Coming after deep-thinking No.10s and wily No.8s seemed more fashionable in the modern era, the good old No.9 is back with a bang.
Manchester United have bought two, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbuemo, and want another, Benjamin Sesko.
Manchester City added Omar Marmoush and signed Erling Haaland up for 10 years.
Never wishing to be left out, Chelsea also bought a pair – Liam Delap and Joao Pedro.
Even Arsenal have succumbed to the fashion trend!
After trying and failing for three years to win the title without one, the penny has finally dropped, and they’ve bought Viktor Gyokeres.
And despite Chris Wood’s 19-goal season of his life, Nottingham Forest have added Brazil’s Igor Jesus.
For their part, Newcastle won’t let Isak go until they replace him – with Sesko!
No.9 carries a special – almost mythical – resonance for Newcastle fans.
Throughout football history, it was the most coveted shirt available.
Well, until the likes of Pep Guardiola introduced false nines and tried to ignore it, nine was the shirt number every kid wanted to wear.
Long before heat maps and other tracking devices, it was realised that the most important stat of all was sticking the ball into the net.
And playing closer to the target helped.
The Magpies probably boast the most impressive No.9 dynasty of all clubs, even without the trophies to back it up.
Most readers will remember Alan Shearer, but before him they had Les Ferdinand, Malcolm McDonald, Jackie Milburn and Hughie Gallacher, to name a few.
Andy Cole and Kevin Keegan scored plenty but were not strictly No.9s.
A special mention has to go to Wyn Davies, who sadly passed away last week at 83.
Known for his fantastic leap, the legendary Welsh striker inspired the book, The Footballer Who Could Fly, as a worthy tribute to Newcastle’s enduring monarchy.
Geordie fans even adapted a popular sixties song by Manfred Mann for Davies. The first verse was: ‘Come all without, come all within, You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Wyn.’
You have to be of a certain vintage to remember that, and sadness at his passing did not hit as hard as Isak’s bombshell.
Being “desperate to go to Anfield,” as he put it, must have cut Geordies to the quick.
They had been struggling to buy players after snaring Anthony Elanga from Forest.
That looked like a straightforward case of a player wanting Champions League football – something Forest missed by a single point.
But a series of rejections has followed, after Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen, who was always going to Real Madrid, set the tone.
It includes Cunha, Mbuemo, Pedro, Delap and Ekitike, who were all targeted as potential accomplices for Isak.
And now, goalkeeper James Trafford, who opted for City, with Nick Pope a rumoured target of Manchester United.
Aaron Ramsdale is on his way, which has only made Geordie fans fear ‘the Ramsdale curse’ – the ex-Southampton keeper having been relegated with all his three clubs.
No, things are not that bad, but they are nothing like as bright as when a return to the Champions League was secured after ending their trophy drought by winning the League Cup.
Which leads back to the question of what they are making of it in Saudi Arabia.
Isak wants to do what Elanga did – join a so-called bigger club – and appears to have burned his bridges, unlike Morgan Gibbs-White at Forest.
Three weeks ago, it looked as if Forest’s resurgent team was being picked off as Spurs triggered a secret sell-by clause of £60m.
First Elanga, then Gibbs-White, fans feared the worst. But Forest claimed Spurs had not asked permission and threatened legal action.
Football took that with a pinch of salt and waited for the inevitable.
But Forest’s formidable Greek shipping magnate owner, Evangelos Marinakis, was not being blown out of the water a second time.
He got to work on Gibbs-White, who, unlike Isak, turned up for training, did not spit the dummy, and when offered an improved contract by Forest, signed it and is staying.
This has been hailed as a marker for “smaller” clubs to resist the blandishments of the Big Six.
The midfielder was also turning his back on Champions League football, which is the only reason Elanga moved.
Making it harder to take Isak’s attitude is that he already had football’s holy Grail in his grasp.
Alright, Liverpool has a better chance of winning it, but what about the club where he’s contracted until 2028 and has made his name? And the fans who worship him?
The Swede, who Liverpool rejected for Darwin Nunez (!), had been a worthy successor to his illustrious predecessors.
Blessed by lightning speed and a killer instinct, he has been the most sought-after No.9 in world football of late.
But now he’s just another Judas.
For some players, it seems, the number of big clubs which players want to join could fit on a podium: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool.
Nope, there are a few things that don’t feel right about this.
Liverpool needs a centre-back more than a centre-forward.
Would they have bought Ekitike if Isak had been available?
Is Ekitike another Nunez?
And poor Newcastle may soon have no No.9!
As for Isak, he is one of the biggest players in the world; it’s a pity he can’t behave like one.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
