If one moment conquered the conflict of the summer of Newcastle United, the Alexander Isak was in the training field and forced to wait while an ice cream bus drove away.
The ice had been for the children of his teammates, all part of a family-fun day organized by Eddie Howe. By late afternoon it was out with the sweets and in with the acid.
It is that bitterness, felt by Isak to the club and for him by supporters, who makes the visit to Liverpool the equivalent of throwing an illuminated game in a fireworks factory on Monday evening. If Newcastle has to remove the Gallowgate End roof to renovate St James' Park, the burning atmosphere that waits can just start with phase one of the redevelopment.
The irony that it is played in the absence of one man who pulled the pin on the summer of his and his club is not lost. Isak, the only senior striker in Newcastle, will look at home.
But who does he want to win? The club for which he wants to play, or the one where he will probably still be on September 2? It is that doubt that makes his reintegration so difficult.
Because of all the roaring words, whispered, screaming and divided over Newcastle this summer, there was one that they all intersected – United. It was very deliberately delivered by the head coach. On August 3, in a noisy corridor in the World Championship stadium, where even the walls sweat, was how cool and calculated. He told me then and made all those competing sounds superfluous that Isak had to earn 'the right' to be with his teammates.
“We are Newcastle United,” he said. His words could still find their way to a WOR flag view on Monday evening, with the supporter group ready to set the tone when the teams walk into the Colosseum. Howe would undoubtedly appreciate the work of WOR -flags – but his main concern about that claustrophobic night in South Korea was to send a message all over the world – to supporters, to his own players, to be goals … to Isak.
As Sir Bobby Robson once said, the name on the back means much less than the badge at the front. Even for Howe, no individual is more important than the collective spirit of a team that has consistently exceeded the sum of its parts.
When Howe left for Seoul's Incheon International Airport that night, he joked that a 14 -hour flight without WiFi could be a welcome relief. When he landed, everything would be fine, a flurry of messages that reveal that their transfer goals wanted to participate and the clubs were willing sellers. That of course did not happen.
Since then, progress has been made with the arrival of defender Malick Thiaw and midfielder Jacob Ramsey, but still not a striker. To sell Isak, they need two. That is now extremely unlikely, say insiders, in combination with a paved determination of the top to tell Isak that he should stay. Even if they are open to the possibility, the board never wanted to sell the best player of the team.
Not either. Because they believe that the team with Isak is not far away from competing at the top of the Premier League. That is the frustration that the player they identified three years ago, the player they developed, the player who has three years to walk his contract, is the only player who is now the missing piece in the puzzle.
Last month I was at Howe and his back room team in the middle of a dried -out training pitch in Seoul. At the time, the heat was on in all respects. But to be there, there was also a reminder of the talent that lives – whether it is the coaches who made full internationals of Anthony Gordon, Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, then Burn and Joelinton, or the players for us who defended those temperatures during a session of intensity, energy and character.
Seeing new teenage recruitment park Seung -Soo let Fabian Schar indicate the end of my observation in a lot – they no longer needed headlines!
As the Tour Far Oosten progressed, the improvement of the vote and coherence on the field was noticeable. On the first day, after landing to the story, Daily Mail Sport broke from Isak who wanted to leave, the Singaporean sun made way for a storm. Howe and his players felt that abuse. Their first, jet-lagged session was Lethargic.
In a lift in the Hotel Hotel I told Bruno Guimaraes that Arsenal – the opponents of that weekend – had looked very sharp against AC Milan a few days earlier. “Oh, f ******* Hell!” The captain laughed. Eventually they played well in a 3-2 defeat. But a week later it felt different in Seoul. Without Isak it was interesting to notice one exercise in which Howe encouraged his midfielders to break the lines, and Guimaraes went on to the goal more than once.
During the flight to South Korea, the majority of the players watched Happy Gilmore 2 and laughed a lot. Such moments were an escape from what how did the 'constant noise' around his team, a racket from which he tried to protect them. He did well for the proof of last weekend's aimless trekking. With Isak – or a striker – Newcastle would have rightly won that game.
And that comes back to the feeling of regret of Howe, his players and supporters – from Isak, a player in Newcastle, who refuses to play. They defeated and beat Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final last season, in which Isak scored. In football terms alone, it is much more difficult to do without him. Yet because of him, on a roundabout, it is that they still have every chance to beat Liverpool. His actions this summer have guaranteed that a bear Pit is waiting.
A sour taste lingers on Tyneside, but getting one on Liverpool would be the sweetest feeling of all.