The Athletic's resident renowned English Newcastle United team correspondent Chris Waugh, exclusively reported on Thursday that Newcastle United's Sweden international center forward Alexander Isak went on strike after feeling disappointed to being rejected the opportunity to transfer to Liverpool, and has officially submitted a transfer request to the club.

According to Waugh's report, although Newcastle United recently announced that Isak would not fly to Singapore with the team to participate in the pre-season friendly match against Arsenal this weekend due to a minor thigh injury, team doctors had actually already confirmed that the player's injury was not serious and would not affect his participation in training and playing this weekend, so this has proved that the player had went on strike.

Although now that the club has set off to fly to Singapore, Isak not only did not appear at Newcastle United's training base to participate in the team doctor's treatment plans, but on the contrary, he had suddenly submitted a transfer request to the club.

According to sources, Isak's actions are closely related to him being rejected the opportunity to transfer to Liverpool for £120 million by Newcastle United recently.

Waugh said that in fact, the Magpies had promised Isak that they would not prevent him from transferring this summer during the winter transfer window in January this year, but the club's tough stance of repeatedly rejecting the Reds was regarded by the player as a breach of promise.

Although some media outlets alleged that Newcastle United might be waiting for the Saudi Pro League club to make offers for Isak, Waugh had denied this statement.

He said that since they belong to the Saudi Private Investment Fund (PIF), in order to avoid violating the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and the Multi-Club Ownership Rules, Newcastle United will not deliberately seek opportunities to wait for the Saudi Premier League club to make offer for Isak to avoid other Premier League clubs having the opportunity to "take advantage of the issue".

However, since Isak's current contract with the club will run for another three years, Newcastle United still has the right to decide when to let the player leave the club.

In addition, his colleague, resident renowned English Liverpool team correspondent James Pearce, who is currently on a business trip in Hong Kong and is reporting closely on Liverpool's pre-season friendly match there, had also made a follow-up report.

Pearce confirmed a report by another colleague of the two, David Ornstein, that Liverpool has not given up on signing Isak.

He said, as Ornstein said, Liverpool will not completely give up the plan to sign Isak just because they have just signed Hugo Ekitike. On the contrary, they have always taken the approach that as long as there is a slight chance, the Reds will not miss any opportunity to sign the player.

Pearce added that due to the uncertainty of Darwin Núñez, Federico Chiesa, Luis Díaz and Harvey Elliott, Isak is definitely still one of the top targets that the club expects to bring in next.

He also reaffirmed that due to strong profitability, even if the transfer fee of about £150 million is spent to sign Isak, the Reds' PSR loss limit amount can still show a healthy figure.

However, Pearce also admitted that whether Liverpool will take action to restart the plans to offer and buy Isak migh depend on whether the aforementioned players whose situations are still unclear really leave the club, because the Reds has now turned all its attention to try to sign Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi.

It is worth mentioning that the action taken by Isak now is exactly the same as when Brazil international attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho forced Liverpool to let him transfer to Barcelona.

If Liverpool can really successfully sign Isak, this will mean that the Reds will break the English football transfer fee record for the third time in the same transfer window this summer after signing Florian Wirtz and Ekitike.

About Alexander Isak

Alexander Isak, 25, was born in Solna, Sweden on September 21, 1999. He is 1.92 meters tall and primarily plays as a center forward. He can also play as a left winger. He has dual Swedish and Eritrean nationality.

Isak previously played for AIK Solna, Dortmund, Willem II and Real Sociedad, and joined Newcastle United from Real Sociedad for £70 million in August 2022.

Since becoming a member of the Magpies, Isak has played 109 times for the Premier League giants in all competitions so far, scoring 62 goals, assisting 11 times, and winning the Carabao Cup once with the club.