Rayvin

Have just been told by my German mate that the guy is 2m tall and can dribble, apparently he considers him better than Wirtz even if positions are a bit different. High praise, but if true it has to mean that Isak is off surely... this is a top tier replacement by the sounds of it.

Sorry what? What went too far? Our attempts to passionately inspire the club to victory went 'too far'? What is the acceptable level of motivation a club's fanbase is meant to apply, exactly? Nothing that exceeds Anfield I suppose. Anything beyond what the scousers are capable of is 'too much'. Gentrified little fuck.

The club, I hope, is not basing any of its actions on the prattling of journalists and wider public discourse. It should not feel 'pressured' to do anything with Isak that it doesn't want to do. If it wants to keep him, fine. It's going to get plenty of cover after the window shuts anyway on the basis that 'striker isn't available for sale because it will leave us shafted' clearly isn't a unique position this summer..! IMO Isak is staying put and we're running the season with a top tier striker. Be nice to get someone else in as backup but it's looking difficult.

I think more than Newcastle United, more than Isak, more than our wider fanbase, Toontastic specifically needs this transfer window to fucking end.

And this would be the actual reason behind all of our immigration... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/27/england-and-wales-fertility-rate-falls-for-third-consecutive-year

I think it's now SL or bust tbh. If we go back for Wissa now, Brentford will demand the value of whatever our last offer to Wolves was.

Aye but in fairness to them, that's exactly what I'd be looking for to buy someone we literally just signed. I feel like Wolves being resistant is far more reasonable than Brentford, as they've essentially just had our drama rain down on them from on high, out of nowhere. Brentford on the other hand can continue to get in the fucking sea.

This transfer window has been absolutely crackers, mind.

How much money can Interim Merlin possibly be making from that tweet

I will never understand why people do this sort of thing.

Watch us tough this out and keep him only for him to get crocked playing for Sweden because he's not been conditioning himself properly.

I suppose it's also possible that we have interest somewhere in another high tier striker and so have maintained to Isak privately that this is still possible per the same conditions we've maintained throughout, even if it is now looking incredibly unlikely.

Would cost him a lot of money though. Millions. I'm not so sure in the end, his personal brand takes an absolute hammering if he does that also. I think it's one thing trying to force a move over the summer, quite another to skip out on playing for months. That said, who knows. The media certainly feel like this transfer is going to happen, that much is clear - but the only party who can know for sure are our board.

I think this is right. We don't get both, so if we have to sell Isak then we're going to have to survive without his replacement until at least January. It sucks, but it's better than massively overpaying for two different players. You'd like to think SL would actually be a higher than 14/season striker for us anyway.

How are Juventus even affording that? I've barely even heard of this guy, why on earth did they end up forking over that much a week for him?

If he's on £320k a week there is no chance we'd sign him - if we had that kicking around Isak wouldn't be wanting out. I'd imagine SL is going to take us to the cleaners on wages too mind, after all this. If we finally get a bid over the line, if I was him, I'd start at 100k a week.

It won't be about being stupid in the end though, it'll be weighing up the cost of the two outcomes in the balance and picking the lesser evil. I hope the idea of keeping him is the lesser evil, but it might not be in the club's eyes.

As soon as we sign someone, all of these strikers will see their values drop by £20m.

I've been thinking that. I don't really understand why we should give a fuck if it's a British record fee or not.

Does this mean we have given Liverpool a clear signal to proceed then? Surely that's the only circumstance under which they'd bid, they did say so after all...

Are we up to £70m for Larsen now? We're going to be handing over all the Isak money at this rate.

This is exactly why I wouldn't bother to sell him and insist that he plays. We spend 60m either way on the Wilson back up. If we get to next summer and he's £30m cheaper as a result, at least we got a fucking season out of him - plus I think both his loyalty and book value would be lower by then. Selling him now makes no sense at all unless Liverpool pay astronomical numbers.

Aye, we didn't lose that game because of a bad decision, we didn't even lose it because of Gordon - we lost it because of Isak. Not really looking to fault the ref much for this one.

Yeah but does that then mean we play the season with just one striker. It's a weird moment because I fully don't understand how we can let Isak go here, but at the same time it feels like everything is pulling towards him leaving.

Agreed - hopefully the new CEO has a bit more about him in terms of putting the structures in place beneath him.