00:00So it's been a bit of a chaotic week in Newcastle United without actually too much changing.
00:07We entered the week when Newcastle haven't signed Anthony Langer of course, and deals
00:11going on in the background, but not too much happening, you know, I think the squad come
00:15back to pre-season training of course a week ago, they had the international players all
00:20join them on Monday and of course they jetting off to Austria, so that's on in the background
00:23of Newcastle, you know, working towards a friendly against Celtic on Saturday, but in
00:28the background you've had so much drama involving Alexander Isak and Hugo Eketiki, and as I
00:34mentioned, as we record this on Friday afternoon, it's the same situation as it was on Monday,
00:39Newcastle still have Alexander Isak as one of their players, they maintain that he's not
00:42for sale, they've, I suppose, they've had an interest in him and rebuffed that, but that's
00:48the only thing that's really changed, of course news that Newcastle are interested in Eketiki,
00:52broke early in the weekend, it was big news, you know, the fact that Newcastle thought
00:56had a way of playing Eketiki and Isak together, that's the way they viewed him, it was big
01:01news, and that of course then forced Liverpool to make a move, I don't think they wanted to
01:06make a move this early for a striker, I think that Eketiki, well obviously Isak was their
01:10number one choice, Eketiki was on the list, and I don't believe that they wanted to, you
01:14know, to go all out right now, it's only July, I know that fans want signings, but realistically
01:19it's still sort of a month till the start of the season, six weeks till the end of the
01:23window at least, so forcing Liverpool's hand in the way they have, I think was clever from
01:29Newcastle, means Isak's future, or the talk about Isak's future is not going to roll around
01:33all summer, they're not going to be getting to end of August with Liverpool still, you
01:36know, chucking a bid in here, showing interest, because if they get this Eketiki deal done,
01:41then ultimately, you know, they've got their big money striker, Darwin Nunes might go, and
01:48Liverpool have replaced him, so really, that's the way I think it goes, I think Newcastle
01:51did well to get that potentially done earlier, of course they would have liked to have Eketiki,
01:55you know, the reports of their interest, you know, emerged and it was big, and of course
02:01they submitted a £70 million offer, and they don't submit that kind of offer for a player
02:05they don't want, but I think it was a bit of gainsmanship from Newcastle, a bit of, you
02:09know, if we go in for him, that'll speed up Liverpool's decision making, and then that'll
02:13benefit them further down the line, keeping hold of Isak now, I think Newcastle have come
02:18out of that better, I think that Newcastle have kept hold of Isak, who is probably, for
02:23my money, the best striker in world football, and they can now really concentrate on having
02:28him all summer, they were doing that anyway, but now they've removed potentially one major
02:33party who could be interested in Isak, they can really build for next year, now they will
02:37hope to get more signings done, Alanga's joined as mentioned, but they'd hope someone like
02:41James Traff had a new centre-back can join, they still need a backup striker, Dominic
02:46Calbulun's been linked, of course Eketiki was on their list, that's now gone, so I think
02:50there's still room for improvement this summer, of course there is, and I think that it would
02:54have been nice to have gone into that game against Celtic with at least one more than
02:58Alanga new signing, but you never know what might happen over the weekend and over the
03:01week, and hopefully they can, you know, get their acting gear and really press on with the
03:05transfers before they go to Asia, you know, they've got some big games coming up, Arsenal,
03:10Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, Espanyol and a K-League team to play all before the kick-off
03:16against the season against Aston Villa, so it's going to be an interesting few weeks,
03:19but the big thing from this week, if you can take anything from this week, is that Alexander
03:24Rezac is a Newcastle United player and it's looking even more likely now that he will
03:27remain at the club come the end of the summer window, and of course the best way you can
03:30stay up to date with all the latest Newcastle United transfer news between now and Monday
03:34September 1st when the window closes is with the Shields Gazette.
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