Newcastle United’s exciting Alexander Isak plan now possible after Amanda Staveley solution found
Getting exciting talent through the door at St James’ Park remains the goal for Newcastle United this summer – but keeping Alexander Isak at the club is also of paramount importance to the Magpies.
After links to Chelsea and Arsenal last year, it is now the turn of Liverpool to do their own digging around a striker whose goal record was second only to the Reds’ Mohamed Salah last season. Despite a record spend on exciting attacker Florian Wirtz, whispers refuse to quieten over Liverpool launching an ambitious bid for Isak’s services.
Newcastle, however, feel in a strong position. They have placed an eye-watering valuation on their star striker, who is under contract under 2028. Meanwhile, Champions League football has returned to Tyneside and Isak has repeatedly spoken of his happiness on these shores.
However, it does it feels as though these rumors of a Newcastle exit will linger until a deal is signed and sealed. With talks in the pipeline going forward, a new contract will mean a few things for both player and club.
Isak will become Newcastle’s highest earner – potentially of all time – adding to the wage budget in the process. In recent seasons, the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Joelinton have all received shiny new deals which came their salary increases.
The 2023/24 financial accounts showed Newcastle’s wage bill had increased to £219m, representing a year-on-year increase of 17 per cent. Yet United’s wage-to-turnover ratio has significantly improved in recent years.
Recent revenue growth, brought about thanks to deals with Adidas, Sela, Noon and other companies, means Newcastle’s turnover ratio has decreased from 95 per cent in the 2021/22 season to 68 per cent in the 2023/24 season. Speaking in 2022, then-Newcastle chief Amanda Staveley spoke of the previous figure being ‘too high’.
“With business, you have to do your due diligence,” she said. “Salary and wage inflation is a real problem for all of us. It is a problem in the lower leagues, it is a problem in Europe.
“In the Championship you have some clubs at 110% wages to turnover. It is crazy. We are running at about 65% and that is still probably too high.”
However, only Chelsea [72 per cent] and Aston Villa [98 per cent] have higher ratios in the Premier League, according to the Deloitte Money League. As such, Newcastle will still seek to remain vigilant over spending – and while the return of Champions League football and continued success in growing their revenue represent positives, they still cannot match the Manchester City’s and Liverpool’s of the footballing world when it comes to the amount of money they can offer players to come and play for them.
This has been the case ever since the 2021 takeover, with the summer of 2023 – the last time Howe’s squad was truly bolstered – a reminder of this. That particular trading period saw the likes of Harvey Barnes, Sandro Tonali and Tino Livramento arrive at Newcastle but the likes of James Maddison and Declan Rice were also linked with moves from Leicester City and West Ham United, respectively.
Both midfielders were expecting eye-watering wage package, which ultimately led to Newcastle standing little chance of pulling off either move. Instead, it would be Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal who coughed up for two big-name England stars.
“Is the budget big? Well, when you’re sat in my shoes, it’s never as big as you want it to be,” Howe told reporters two years ago. “Financial Fair Play, as I always say, will impact what we do this summer. Certainly, without Champions League football, it would have been very difficult for us to have done much in the transfer market at all. The fact we have that has given us a bit of a lift.
“But it’s not just the transfer fees [that are an issue], it’s also the wages. We’re not huge players of wages in the Premier League, so the big clubs will all dwarf us in terms of that. That makes it hard to attract the very, very best players on the market.”
Newcastle’s financial position has certainly improved since Howe’s comments on financial firepower – and with room to manoeuvre – budget wise – this summer, Isak should be presented with an attractive offer.
In turn, hopefully bringing an end to those tiresome whispers over his Newcastle United future.
