Newcastle United’s hierarchy have unanimously agreed that Alexander Isak should be the priority in the transfer window to boost their attack.
The Magpies will have to break their transfer record of £42million for Bruno Guimaraes to land the Sweden international and the Saudi owners fear they would need to spend almost their entire remaining transfer budget to sign the forward.
Manager Eddie Howe is, however, still keen to sign at least two offensive players before the close of the summer transfer window, as they remain heavily linked to a number of players.
Although having spent around £52m on defenders and a goalkeeper – Sven Botman, Matt Targett and Nick Pope – there are some difficult conversations taking place about what the priorities are.
The Argentine says his new club will see the same ‘electric’ Di Maria from his PSG and Real Madrid days.
Newcastle may have to sacrifice certain targets in order to capture the signature of Isak, with Sociedad wanting ‘big money’ for their star striker, who was one of the best youngsters on display at Euro 2020, according to Telegraph Sport.
The report suggests that the Magpies will try to thrash out a buy-now-pay-later deal, with a relatively small down payment this summer and another large instalment in 12 months time.
That could see a £50m-plus fee with a 50-50 split, which would mean the Magpies only had to find a far more manageable £30m now.
If a deal can be reached for Isak, it is expected that would probably be the end of Newcastle’s transfer business this summer, unless they are able to raise extra funds by selling a few of the current squad.
The LaLiga side are aware of the interest and talks have been taking place, but an agreement is yet to be reached.
Isak enjoyed a breakout season with Sociedad last campaign, scoring 17 goals in 34 LaLiga appearances and could the answer to Newcastle’s lack of goals.
The 22-year-old has scored 43 goals in 130 games for the Spanish club since his move from Borussia Dortmund and helped them win the Copa del Rey in 2019-20.
