Latest news with #AlexIsak
BBC News
3 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'At some point, he will leave'
I want to tour other Premier League clubs with a big 'HANDS OFF ALEX ISAK' sign and wave it around. What good will that do? I don't know. But it feels like a statement I want to the noises coming from Newcastle United at the moment make it seem like Isak is not for sale, and will still be in black and white this September. This is huge for Newcastle's season, with Champions League football returning and hopefully another decent cup run to come. Without Isak, I think a lot of our hopes of finishing high in the table, doing respectably in the Champions League, and generally having a happy time this season fade news notifications on your clubAt some point, he will leave. I don't believe Isak is so in love with Newcastle United that he wants to stay years and finish his career here. He's an ambitious player who probably wants to be playing in the best leagues in the world.I, however, don't think it's inevitable that he leaves this time next year, but I do think it's more likely. His price will still be high; he will only be 26. At that point, it makes no sense from a PSR perspective to hold on - particularly if the player himself is ready to frustrating that this is where we are, financially, and at the same time I understand it. It would be lovely to just fling cash at players, keep them happy, and buy reinforcements. It would also be boring and not good for the game if, say, three rich clubs just did that all the time. I'm just glad we look like we might keep hold of Isak for another massive season at Newcastle United, and develop/scout other players in case we find ourselves without him more from Charlotte Robson at the True Faith: Newcastle United Podcast, external
The Independent
12-07-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
‘I have still got so much to give': Callum Wilson on leaving Newcastle and new opportunities
Callum Wilson has been watching a lot of football. It wasn't all preparation for a month of punditry. He feels he has watched too much in the last few months; the last two years, really. And not from the DAZN studio or a gantry but the dugout. During his time analysing the Club World Cup, he became a footballer without a club, his stay at Newcastle ending when his contract expired. Yet it will not prompt a free transfer to any of the sport's broadcasters. Not yet, anyway. 'I am 33. I have still got so much to give in the game,' he said. 'I feel mentally and physically still able to more than contribute in however many games in a season.' It was why he left Newcastle. Theirs was a successful season: a first trophy since 1969, a fifth placed finish to return to the Champions League. Yet his was a frustrating campaign on a personal level: a tally of 18 Premier League appearances does not tell the whole story when 16 were in cameos, many of them brief, and the goalscorer's only goal came in the FA Cup. Wilson suffered from the success of a man he regards as one of the finest in his position in the global game. If he was an underused understudy, it is because the first choice was first class. 'It is just difficult, you are playing at a club when you have got arguably one of the best strikers in world football at the moment, in the form of Alex Isak,' he said. 'To break in is difficult. I am never one who shies away from a fight, I would happily be there to push and take my opportunity when it arose, but it just didn't seem to arise in the back end of the season. I was fit from January, I made two starts and numerous substitute appearances but they were all five or 10 minutes here or there. Alex deserves the right [to play]. He had has a fantastic two seasons at the club, all credit to Alex, but I don't see myself permanently cemented as a No 2 striker.' And it was that sense that drove him to leave St James' Park after 'an amazing' five seasons. 'I don't want the last few years of my career to fizzle out and sit around on the bench and just collect money but not actually contribute to these wins, to these Champions League games, to these cup finals,' he explained. 'You want to be part of it, you want to be scoring and assisting in these games and deciding these matches. Being the character I am, being as motivated as I am and ambitious in terms of trying to get into the hundred club and things like that, it was the right decision to leave Newcastle.' The hundred club Wilson cites is the Premier League striking elite, the men with a century of goals in the division. He has been stuck on 88 for more than a year. Yet a forward who prides himself on his numbers can threaten to be in a different sort of hundred club. He averaged a goal every 109 minutes in the Premier League in 2023-24, one every 104 the previous season. It is a return many another forward could only envy. But, Wilson reflected: 'You have to be on the pitch to get these opportunities. When you are sitting on the bench, you are watching the team create so many chances but you are not on the pitch to take them, you are itching to get on.' Now he is itching for another chance. 'You want to play at the highest level so that is my ambition,' he added. 'I am not saying wherever I go, I have to be first-choice striker but the rotation is going to be fair. I feel like I can break in and dislodge people within different leagues in my position.' And there was an Isak-shaped roadblock to his ambitions at Newcastle, a player with 44 league goals in the last two seasons. Newcastle don't want to sell Isak. Wilson could not bank on him moving on. 'If I was to pride myself on staying because Alex might leave and he doesn't leave, it bites me on the backside,' he said. But there were conversations about his future with Eddie Howe, his former Bournemouth manager. Theirs has been a productive, long-term alliance. Now Wilson is looking for another patron. He is determined to be in the best possible shape. 'I am going to put myself now into a fitness camp for a short period of time and during that time I will be making a decision on my future,' he said. And meanwhile, Newcastle face the question of how to replace him. Wilson's punditry career has given him a glimpse of one of their summer striking targets. Instead, Joao Pedro scored a Club World Cup semi-final double for Chelsea. 'He looks like a fantastic signing,' Wilson said. 'Newcastle were trying to sign him as well which unfortunately didn't happen for them.' A new addition to the punditry team has tried to be an empathetic assessor of his peers. 'When a striker misses an opportunity, it is not for the want of trying,' he said. 'Was it the wrong technique or what happened five seconds before? I was trying to analyse it from that point of things rather than criticising.' Indeed, he said, he has never needed the pundits to find fault in his game when it has gone wrong. 'I am probably my biggest critic and I analyse myself more than anyone else would so when I play well, I don't really feel I need to seek validation of people telling me I play good,' he added. But he hopes to play, and play well. Even as he explores his future, he is hoping to postpone part of it. Punditry, he says, was about 'experiencing something new, something different, something I have thought would I be interested in post career'. But that career, he believes, has plenty of games and goals left in it.
BBC News
10-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'This season it has been finding me'
Newcastle United winger Jacob Murphy is having the season of his had two loan spells in the Championship in his first three seasons at Newcastle - with West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield career has been somewhat of a slow burner. Until this season he had not scored more than four Premier League goals in a season."I do have targets, but I never try to force it," said Murphy."I always let it come to me if I'm doing the correct things. That's how the universe works, it'll always find you. This season it has been finding me."I have a great striker in Alex [Isak] to provide for and great experience behind me. Everything is clicking to help elevate my game and then I think my game elevates others."Murphy was part of the Newcastle team that beat Liverpool 2-1 in the Carabao Cup final in March - and set up Isak's goal to make it was the Magpies' first trophy since the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969 - and their first domestic one since the 1955 FA also played in the 2023 Carabao Cup final, which Newcastle lost to Manchester United."Wembley was amazing," said Murphy. "The feeling was a lot different this time compared to when we were runners-up a couple of seasons ago."We felt ready. We felt this was our time. The build-up was good. A lot less nerves. Once the game started something felt different."Here more from Murphy in Football Daily on BBC SoundsRead more about his journey
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Eddie Howe's programme notes ahead of Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest have consistently shown what a strong and well-coached side they are, and the challenge for us is clear this afternoon. We want to get back to winning ways at home in the Premier League, and we know we will need to be the best version of ourselves to get the result we want. We demonstrated our strength at home in our last outing here, deservedly beating Arsenal to progress to the Carabao Cup final, and I thought the atmosphere was incredible. We made a fast start and were unlucky not to go ahead when Alex Isak's goal was ruled out for a marginal offside, before Jacob Murphy put us ahead with a composed finish after Alex's shot came back off the post. After the break we maintained the same levels of energy and intensity and were rewarded when Anthony Gordon doubled our lead on the night to make it 4-0 on aggregate. The players remained disciplined and defended as a unit, managing the remainder of the game well to secure a return to Wembley. Our attention always has to be on the next game and the next challenge, and our focus was immediately on the FA Cup and a tricky tie away at Birmingham City. Sitting top of League One and on a long unbeaten run, we knew they would approach the tie full of confidence. We faced an uphill battle when we conceded in the opening minute, but the players deserve huge credit for showing their resilience, sticking to the task and finding a way back into the match. It came through Joe Willock, and five minutes later Callum Wilson put us in front. Birmingham levelled just before half time from long range, but again the players were undeterred. They stuck to the plan and deservedly found a way to win late on with a second goal from Joe. Last weekend we were back in Premier League action and travelled to Manchester City on what proved to be a difficult day. They are still the best team on the ball in the Premier League in my opinion, and if you let your levels drop in any way, you can be punished. Although defeat is painful, moments like that can help you in the long run. It's about analysing and learning from your mistakes, using the pain to keep your motivation high and growing for the next games. The challenge is always to respond. We have an opportunity to do that today, and we will be giving it everything to come away with a positive result. Thank you for your support and enjoy the game.
