Saudi Chemicals Giant Posts Another Surprise Earnings Loss
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. posted a net loss of 1.2 billion riyals ($320 million), according to a statement on Sunday. That compares with analysts' estimates for a profit of 699 million riyals. The results reflect challenges including elevated feedstock prices and lower overall sales volumes, particularly in agri-nutrients and polymers.
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Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Newcastle owners admit DEFEAT over Liverpool's Alexander Isak deal
Newcastle could be forgiven for being quite mad at the current situation they find themselves in. Granted, the club managed to land Anthony Elanga - improving their wing options - but they have come up short in the window elsewhere. LFC Kits Shop Now LFC x New Era Shop Now LFC Signed Merch Shop Now LFC x Titleist Shop Now They have been unable to add to their strikers - first losing out to Chelsea for Joao Pedro and then seeing Liverpool swoop for a priority target. Hugo Ekitike, 23, was the subject of an approach from the Geordies earlier this week but Eintracht Frankfurt were unconvinced. Liverpool move into position for Isak Liverpool needed no further encouragement - swooping decisively for an initial £69m deal. And now they face ANOTHER threat from the Reds - this time for Alexander Isak. The 25-year-old has made it quite clear he now wishes to leave St. James' Park - declining the Magpies' attempts to tie him down to a new deal. Liverpool are poised to strike; having broken the British transfer record once this summer for Florian Wirtz, Richard Hughes is ready to do it all over again. It would take £130m for Liverpool to land Isak - not to mention the £300k per week that the player would demand. But with his mind seemingly made up, Newcastle can either face the prospect of selling the Sweden international or hanging on forlornly to a very unhappy player. There is an alternative emerging for the North East club however - and one which demonstrates just how far they are prepared to go to keep Isak out of Liverpool's clutches. PIF want to buy Isak for Al-Hilal PIF-owned Newcastle have got several sister clubs in the Saudi Pro League - including Al-Hilal. Now it's being reported in TBR Football that PIF - the Saudi wealth fund - are trying to convince Isak to move to Al-Hilal instead of Liverpool. 'PIF want Alexander Isak to consider a move to the Saudi Pro League this summer,' the report reads. 'Al Hilal and PIF are prepared to pay £150 million to bring Alexander Isak to the Middle East this summer.' © IMAGO - Alexander Isak Liverpool The writing is on the wall for Newcastle Isak is unlikely to be swayed by the attempts to lure him to the Middle East. He is one of the world's foremost striking talents and DESERVES to be playing at the very highest level. Liverpool can guarantee that. The player has NOT travelled to Asia as part of Newcastle's preseason tour - where they play Arsenal, a K-League XI and Spurs. Instead he is nursing what is officially being described as a minor thigh injury while his future is being sorted out. Try as they like, Newcastle might have designs on keeping Isak or else limiting the damage of his departure by selling out of the Premier League. But player power is key. All Liverpool are waiting for is a sign that Isak wants to come to Anfield. Then it will be time to break Newcastle's hearts all over again. **👉 **Liverpool set to increase transfer budget by £200m 🔗
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Liverpool forward could MOVE after Saudis trigger €65m deal
The Saudi Pro League has not had the same kind of impact in this transfer window as it has done in the last few years. Where once the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane led the list of high-profile incomings, there has been a shortage of star names moving to Saudi Arabia during the current transfer season. LFC Kits Shop Now LFC x New Era Shop Now LFC Signed Merch Shop Now LFC x Titleist Shop Now Of course, Saudi clubs have got their eyes on a couple of prized assets at Liverpool. Luis Diaz, 28, is wanted by Al-Nassr - who are willing to part with €100m to land the Colombian - but his preference right now would appear to be Bayern Munich. Then there's Darwin Nunez. The Uruguayan striker, 26, is believed to favour a move within Europe but is seeing his options dry up as the window goes on. Diaz and Nunez wanted in Saudi Arabia He would have no problem gaining a rich contract in the Middle East should he choose to accept the move with Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal both keen on the Liverpool No9. Both players are going to see their opportunities restricted if they end up staying at Anfield through the summer as big-name arrivals including Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have all but secured their spot in Arne Slot's XI. So no doubt they will be hoping to land elsewhere - and the list of possibilities even includes Saudi Arabia. One team in the region which HAS managed to land its No1 target however is Al-Qadsiah. Flush with PIF cash, Al-Qadsiah have just completed a record deal which could end up having a big impact at Anfield. Retegui sale opens space at Atalanta Mateo Retegui, 26, has moved from Atalanta to Al-Qadsiah for €65m, becoming the league's flagship arrival of the summer. And his somewhat unexpected departure has opened the door for Atalanta to complete several deals. The club were previously reported to be in the hunt for although the winger's £120k per week salary was putting them off. They are now boosted by a €65m windfall however - meaning a shock move for the Italy international could now be back on the table. That's according to a new report in Foot Mercato, which claims Atalanta are among FOUR Serie A teams now interested in making a bid for the 27-year-old forward. © IMAGO - Federico Chiesa Liverpool Chiesa a PRIORITY for Atalanta 'As Federico Chiesa endures a summer of total uncertainty at Liverpool, several Serie A clubs are ready to lend him a helping hand,' a report reads. 'Atalanta, in search of a new attacking asset after the departure of Mateo Retegui, has made him their priority. 'Roma, Fiorentina, and Bologna are keeping a close eye on developments.' It was a frustrating season for Chiesa following his €12.5m transfer from Juventus last September. He played only SIX times in the Premier League - making only one start - and barely impressed on his outings in other competitions. Chiesa was earmarked for a transfer as early as January but was kept around for the second half of the season. He is expected to wrap up an outgoing transfer before the window closes - which in turn could add another €15m to the club's transfer funds.
New York Times
16 hours ago
- New York Times
Newcastle United, Alexander Isak's wish to leave, and the challenge of being elite
Newcastle United are an elite team. They are fresh from winning a trophy in their second cup final in the space of three seasons. Over the same period, they have finished fourth, seventh and fifth in the Premier League and they are back in the Champions League, where they last played in 2023-24. Europe, competing, winning; these things are becoming their natural domain. They have an exceptional head coach and some brilliant players. Advertisement Newcastle are not an elite club. They do not have a purpose-built training ground and St James' Park is ageing. At £83.6million ($113m) in their last published accounts, their annual commercial income is dwarfed by those of the traditional 'Big Six' (Arsenal, who earned the least of them last season, still raked in £218.3m). As things stand, they have no sporting director and have not appointed a successor to Darren Eales, the chief executive, who is on medical leave while serving his notice. An elite club needs an elite team. It could also do with a strategy. These twin threads — of what it takes to be elite — snake back over two or three years, as Howe's first team has raced ahead of a club scrambling to rebuild after the inertia of the Mike Ashley era while hemmed in by the Premier League's profit and sustainability Rules (PSR). On the one hand, they have spent big since their Saudi-led takeover in 2021, but on the other, Anthony Elanga's recent arrival from Nottingham Forest came after three successive transfer windows with no first-team-ready signings. Somewhere in the middle of all that stands Alexander Isak, a player who has developed under Howe into one of the most complete forwards around, a game-changer and a match-winner who has scored 20 goals or more in consecutive Premier League seasons. If the £60m Newcastle spent on Isak in 2022 was a calculated gamble — the Sweden international had huge potential but could drift towards the periphery — it has long since paid off. This summer, Newcastle have been given a brutal education in what being elite entails. Several oven-ready players they have either targeted or approached — Bryan Mbeumo, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Hugo Ekitike among them — have moved to more established clubs, either in terms of history, reputation or paying power. And now, Isak, their most important and valuable asset, wishes to leave and has been omitted from their pre-season tour to Asia. Advertisement In isolation, this kind of thing can happen to any club. Isak did not grow up a Newcastle fan who dreamt of scoring in front of the Gallowgate End. As a fanbase, as a region, we yearn for people to be swept away by our beautiful madness, to get us and buy into us, and Isak has done that while becoming part of a team that has delivered a moment of immortality. Yet careers are finite and he has a right to look around and consider his options. At Liverpool, who recently expressed an interest in buying Isak for £120m, Mohamed Salah has commanded a basic weekly wage of £350,000, which The Athletic has reported was actually closer to £1m once external commercial endorsements were taken into account. Salah was the only player to score more goals than Isak in the Premier League last season, but Newcastle's highest earners are on around £150,000-a-week. In relative terms, that is not stratospheric. Away from the training ground, there has been a degree of confidence regarding Isak's position over recent months. After the shambles of a year ago, when PSR was pressing in and Newcastle sold Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to raise £60m and head off a double-figure points deduction, they no longer need to sell. With Isak having three years on his contract, they felt they were in a position of strength, although this was always dependent on the player's attitude. Discussing a new deal with Isak was always part of the plan this summer. An elite club like Liverpool could offer him £300,000-a-week, but could Newcastle? 'We aren't the biggest payers in the league, because we don't generate the most income,' Howe told reporters after Newcastle's 4-0 friendly defeat to Celtic last weekend. 'So, we have to fall in line with PSR, be very smart with what we do. We have to control the wages of the players we have.' It is not particularly helpful to point out that Newcastle have a baked-in disadvantage here, just as any upwardly mobile club does. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle's majority owners, have the wherewithal to pay elite salaries and elite transfer fees, but the system does not allow it, and although that system is designed to protect football from unbalanced spending, it also serves to protect those already at the top. Advertisement How do ambitious clubs circumnavigate that or compete with it? They get bigger, and in Newcastle's case, their overall revenue for the financial year 2023-24 was £320.3m, a 28 per cent year-on-year increase which Eales described as 'unprecedented growth in football.' Pretty impressive until you see what they're up against; for the same period, Manchester City's revenue was £715m, more than double. The other way is to sell, and here Newcastle are both locked in a corner and still to crack the code. Their model post-takeover has been to sell at the right time and the right place; when Bruno Guimaraes joined them in that first, manic January window, leading figures at the club speculated in private about getting a good couple of years out of him and then selling, reinvesting and going again, but that moment never happened. Desperation to avoid relegation made them spend. Injury to Callum Wilson made them spend on Isak. Qualifying for the Champions League the first time obliged them to spend again to deepen their playing pool, then a ridiculous rash of injuries mitigated against selling. Nobody touched Guimaraes for a release clause set at £100m and when the time (inevitably) came that they had no choice but to sell, it was no longer on their terms. Having trimmed their squad over the past 12 months, Newcastle have more room for manoeuvre and have been able to do very little about it, Elanga apart. Selling Isak would wipe out PSR issues for the foreseeable future, but it would weaken them in a position which they already needed reinforcements for and which is notoriously difficult and expensive to fill. This at the very moment the Champions League beckons once again. As The Athletic has reported, Newcastle are exploring a move for Benjamin Sesko, the RB Leipzig striker, in the event that Isak goes, with the caveat that this 'would be highly challenging from a financial perspective.' Plus, Isak is a guarantee of Premier League goals. As of yet, Sesko is not. At some point, Newcastle need to master the art of the deal, but nobody wants it to be Isak and nobody wants it to be now. This remains the view of the club, but it is also another thread. Older supporters are still scarred by the loss of Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne and, a little later, Andy Carroll. Countless managers, including Rafa Benitez and Howe, have been paranoid about letting players go, particularly when finances have been tight, because they have never been certain about securing replacements. In spring last year, with Dan Ashworth on gardening leave prior to joining Manchester United, Amanda Staveley, then a Newcastle co-owner, stepped in to handle contract negotiations with Joelinton, the Brazil international. Staveley had previously done something similar with Guimaraes, the logjam was broken and both players signed. Since then, Staveley has gone and so, too, has Paul Mitchell, Ashworth's replacement as sporting director. Advertisement Staveley's personal touch has never been replaced – which is more important than might be imagined – and two huge positions of influence at the top of the club are currently vacant, which is sub-optimal to say the least, particularly when you want to demonstrate to your best player that he is absolutely integral and that you mean business. Who would be doing the talking, the haggling, the praising? Those positions will be filled, but relationships will be new again and the new arrivals will have their own ideas and way of working. It returns Howe to the beginning of last season when his dressing room was left unsettled by a disrupted summer and it took all of his power to turn things around. The head coach managed it back then and perhaps he will manage it again, but it does not feel sustainable. As someone close to Howe told The Athletic not too long ago, speaking anonymously to protect relationships: 'No one fully understands apart from Eddie and his staff just how difficult this season has been. Things could have gone very differently.' This notion of progress, what it looks like and how they get there is both fascinating and fraught. It would help if Newcastle could point to something tangible happening with a new stadium, or share a vision for a new training ground and say 'this is the club we are and will be,' but those big decisions have been repeatedly deferred. It would help if there were somebody to do the pointing; why must every appointment take so bloody long? It would help if they could pay big money, but how to do that without demolishing the wage bill? It would help if they sold a big player, except how does it actually help you to help a rival which is already elite? Not for the first time in living memory, albeit in very different circumstances, Newcastle the club is holding back Newcastle the team. Not for the first time, at least some of it is self-inflicted. ()
