Over the past 48 hours, a few things have been made clear in the increasingly complex (and tiresome) striker saga on Tyneside.
As Alexander Isak continues to sulk, Newcastle will only allow the Swede to leave if we sign TWO strikers and receive an increased offer from Liverpool.
Yoane Wissa may be priced out of a move if Brentford’s £50m demands don’t drop, a deal for Samu Aghehowa looks unlikely based on his £80m price tag and potential injury on Monday night.
But another name cropped up (once again) this morning, with David Ornstein revealing that we have firmed up our interest in Wolves’ Jorgen Stand Larsen.
However, as ever this summer and at this stage of the window, a deal for the 25-year-old will be far from simple and very expensive, as talkSPORT’s Alex Crook reports.
He reveals that Eddie Howe has stepped up his involvement in a potential deal by calling a number of Larsen’s former coaches to gain character references.
That, if true, is a sign that our interest in serious. But striking a deal with Wolves will not be easy, with talkSPORT revealing that Wolves have ‘no desire’ to sell and see him as their main man to fire them to safety following Matheus Cunha’s exit.
As a result, it will take a ‘mega offer’ for Wolves to even consider selling the 6ft 4″ Norwegian, meaning Newcastle may have to pay well over the odds for a man who scored 14 goals last season.
A few weeks ago, Craig Hope reported that Larsen had been priced at around £65m, but it’s not clear if that valuation will go up now we have less than two weeks left of the summer window.
The prices just go up when you leave it too late, so much so that Eddie Howe wanted business to be done early.
Obviously we haven’t got that capability.
Joseph(Quote)
Pay up, for heaven’s sake. He’s OK, maybe better than OK, he’s young, he’s big, he scores goals – what’s not to like? Don’t faff around, sign him at Wolves’ price today!
ps If we don’t sign him, what on earth are we going to do??
davewallace(Quote)
Bayern are still haggling over Nick Woltemade’s £65m valuation with Stuttgart after 2 months. He’s 23 & the future Germany no 9 & has similar physical attributes to Strand Larsen plus similar statistical attributes to Isak (as per fbref) albeit at a lesser competitive level. This is where if Newcastle were to throw a £60m+ bid straight up (& convince the player, who might well have Bayern as his dream destination given his nationality), for once a player could be taken from under the noses of another club instead of it being done to us. He’s still on junior wages effectively (around £8k per week) so personal terms won’t be an issue. Having said that Stuttgart did raise their valuation of Woltemade from £55m to £65m as the saga rolled on so it could become another Guehi/Ekitike/Wissa kind of episode of constantly moving goalposts.
P(Quote)
Also, I fail to understand how Isak is not worth £200m+ in this environment in terms of prices. Is it just that when Liverpool first threw out a story in the media end of last year, one of the local reporters wrote that Newcastle valued him well in excess of £150m. That was then taken as THE price & constantly repeated by the press ignoring the “well in excess” bit until that became the ‘accepted’ price. Liverpool of course with all the skullduggery & the £110m bid (2 years after bidding £105m for Caicedo and losing out) are trying to get a price of around £130m accepted. If he must go the club should at least get the right price & the right price is one which NO ONE can pay this window. No doubt Isak & his agent have been promised big joining on bonuses by Liverpool if the price is much lower while they’d immediately slap a £250m valuation on him once he’s their player (& likely cash in in <2 years time, happy they stopped Newcastle's progress of becoming another title challenger in next 1-2 years). Newcastle officials need to be awake & value its players the way other clubs are doing.
P(Quote)
Agree P but just one thing. Newcastle Utd value that player 3 years ago at 120,000 a week. If it just means as a player improves the pay improves why sign it. It doesent work the other way around and we are restricted by PL and UEFA rules as well. They probably would offer 250,000a week along with al the players they value but they can’ .
This is where the inflation comes into play. Clubs with higher income reducing the supply. It is designed to suit the otherwise why not a £ for £ bond. That would safeguard a club which is what they were allegedly designed for.
The little birdy(Quote)
The least exciting of all those we’ve been linked with this summer. Couldn’t understand why wolves bought him. Definitely reached the bottom of the barrel now!
Dan Alder(Quote)
Newcastle are the worst club in the world to be in this predicament!
Howe is running around getting character references while the clock is ticking.
As I have said previously, I don’t think Howe does himself any favours with his indecisiveness and type of player targeted.
Strand-Larsen is a big part of Wolves staying up this season so Howe is about to embark upon another saga that has very little grounds for success with the Molineux outfit blocking any late move for their player!
He has to look abroad or we end up with the same mess as last summer due to the same ridiculous approach to transfers.
X.Y,WHY,MAN.(Quote)
XY,
I’m afraid I think you are way off beam in your judgements, mate. Blaming Eddie for the farcical situation our transfer policy (policy? what policy?) has produced is extremely misguided. Every other club has senior and experienced people who know what they’re doing looking after transfers – we have a blank, maybe two blanks, where top guys should be, and that’s after getting rid of a plank. Nobody with half a brain can blame Eddie for this NUFC crass incompetence. He has a job to do and is stunningly magnificent at it, look elsewhere for blame.
davewallace(Quote)
This being the same Liverpool who demanded £146m for Coutinho seven years ago, but despite inflation since then don’t value Isak above £110m. The fee should be much nearer £200m for sure. It’s clubs like Liverpool and their 5 mates that have inflated transfer fees, because they like to gazump the “smaller” clubs and price them out of the market. It’s the same reason wages have gone up. So they create the inflation, then argue about paying the fee.
Ian(Quote)
Way too much money…shudda gone for the free transfer strikers…
Fitchy(Quote)
Strand Larsen had the second best conversion rate of any forward in the league last season, only Chris Wood was higher. He was ahead of Isak, Salah, Haaland, Mbeumo etc.
I’m not saying he’s a world beater, but the lad’s definitely got something about him. If he maintains his conversion rate then he could easily score more than Isak last season on paper. On paper potentially means nothing in the real world, of course.
Ian(Quote)
The problem is or has been someone in the background has been sat there desperately holding on to the purse strings and then we get this situation where the desperation becomes the need to buy, so clubs are aware of this and put their prices up. This is all due to the lethargic attitude of not getting in to the market at the beginning of the transfer window. Howe is never going to be satisfied with what players he will end up with, if indeed any at this stage.
Peter Beaumont(Quote)
The trouble is if they buy at the inflated price they’re then accused of being weak by the media.
If they don’t they’re a mess. If the sell Isac, words like surrendered, capitulated, bowed to, and all the rest of it will be flung at us.
Need to ignore the media and just do what suits us and stuff the lot of them.
Pay the price for the players needed and settle on things.
The little birdy(Quote)
Plz sign Larsen, forget Wissa. His another Isak!!!! Larsen Will be our best signing. His got everything a striker needs. FFS he scored 14 goals for Wolves!!!! Imagine how many he will score with Gordon, Barnes, Murphy and Elanga supporting him!!!! But we should let Isak rot in the reserves!!!!!
Wolfie(Quote)
It seems to me that 50 or 60 million is a reasonable price to pay to stay in the prem and have any chance whatsoever of qualifying for Europe again.
Jordi Plato(Quote)
Buy him and Wissa then see what’s available in winter window
Tony(Quote)
The comments is where one should be looking at for news and opinions. The articles nowadays are just pure click bait.
Some very nice opinions in the comments section. Thanks
Chun Mun(Quote)