One of the strange cameies on a thundering night in St James' Park on Monday was the Saudi chairman of Newcastle United Yasir al-Rahalyyan who positioned himself on the touchline to greet the players and manager while processing after defeat against Liverpool.
Eddie Howe did not seem very impressed, based on his rather indifferent reaction to the man in Black Suit and matching draw. The presence on the grass of Al-Rahayyan seemed to be about optics. Transferring a feeling that everything was under control, despite the desire of Alexander Isak to leave Newcastle for Liverpool as the dominant football story throughout the summer.
Well, it is certainly not and, unfortunately, all -rayyan – 'his excellence', as he is known in his subordinates at the £ 3 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund that he runs – is why.
He is the one who has shined the former co -owner Amanda Staveley of Newcastle – the radiant light after the club's takeover – to offer Isak an improved contract to strengthen his loyalty to Newcastle and to keep him happy.
He is the one who, after seeing Stavely Newcastle against her own wishes, has punished the withdrawal of the new sports director Paul Mitchell that that offer and refusal to discuss a new deal. He is the one who has not provided the obvious consequences. Offer a deal, take it away and don't say anymore: in a walk of professional life that is a certain strategy for alienation.
Undoubtedly, some in the tone quota who has labeled Isak a 'Judas', a' greedy bastard and 'pure rat' to quote a banner that is worn to the training area, are enormously insulted by the suggestion, but Isak is the right to ask the right to leave in these circumstances.
It is not only that recording of cash that ISAK gives every reason to want to want. This is a club that is currently missing a sports director, who has still replaced his Chief Executive – 10 months after the last place – and who has not built a promised new training ground. A club that has not significantly strengthened the team in these or earlier transferers. A club that hardly radiates a sign of Saudi wealth.
There are indeed three more years to walk on the contract, Isak signed when arriving at Tyneside in a club record £ 63 million switch from Real Sociedad in 2022 and Newcastle has been the vehicle to increase its profile and value.
But this is not an attention -seeking teenager who runs for himself and struggles with the concept of professional respect. Isak has done the hard yards, where he once went and knows everything about the hellish abyss.
After two years at Borussia Dortmund, his career seemed to decline and a loan agreement for the lack of clarity of the Dutch second layer, where he flourished, the real Sociedad movement that saw him rise. The turnout to fame in Newcastle also took time.
It is against that background that the £ 110 million from Liverpool for him, on 1 August, must be viewed, with the prospect of a Premier League title and the success of the Champions League in the five short years before it turns 30. Can Newcastle really offer him the same in that time frame? Given what we have seen from the Saudis ambition and strategic supervision, almost certainly not.
In the Sky Sports Studio on Monday evening, Thierry Henry offered a reminder of how precarious the short football peak of a player like Isak can be. “It's because he's good that people are upset,” Henry said about him. “If a player is playing badly and the club wants him, I don't see anyone crying for the player.”
The Premier League is currently full of examples of what Henry described. Players who are suddenly all too waxable, in an era in which such people look more like tradable raw materials than ever before.
In a piece I wrote about the lost boys of English football, a few months ago, I told the story of Raheem Sterling, barely two years after Chelsea had thrown a lucrative contract to him and begged him to sign because the incoming Enzo Maresca decided he wasn't fun.
Chelsea was so convinced that they could weigh Sterling to Saudi Arabia that they had completed the paperwork before the player even agreed to go. Sterling called their bluff in the face of this shameful treatment.
Rasmus Højlund from Manchester United, a different taste of the month when he was signed for £ 72 million from Atalanta from Atalanta in 2023, has publicly stated that he wants to stay in the club that he supported as a boy, despite his difficult time there. But United wants to help him balance the books.
Crystal Palace -defender Marc Guéhi wants to see the last year of his contract in Selhurst Park, despite interest from Liverpool and Newcastle, but the idea that he is leaving as a free agent is a problem for Palace, who would rather load.
Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea has become persona non grata after he felt that he was desired and promised to see.
It would be easier to live in Newcastle if they had shown an IOTA of emotional intelligence that other clubs had shown situations in modern times.
I remember that I was in the city center of Liverpool FC, 11 years ago, during a conference call, the American owners of the club had granted correspondents of their club, after Arsenal had made an offer of £ 40 million plus £ 1 for Luis Suarez, after he had established that he had a £ 40 million buy-outclausule.
You instinctively knew that the collective intelligence of these men would be brought the problem that would destroy the structure of that season in exactly the same way as Liverpool's own bid for Isak now. In the end, money spoke in that summer, but communication, diplomacy and a pursuit of common land sealed the deal that Suarez saw remain.
It was the same when Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United made it clear that he wanted to satisfy the ambition of a lifetime to play for Real Madrid and leave Old Trafford in the summer of 2008.
Sir Alex Ferguson flew to Lisbon and promised the player during dinner that he would have his wish if he would give him another year. Ronaldo, then a superstar, was charmed. “My coach was so kind to come and visit me in Lisbon,” he told a Portuguese confidant, a few days later.
'His Excellency' seems to have felt that a visit to Isak would be enough on Monday in his house in Northumberland. But this required more than a social call. The player's strategy might not understand him for many, but he has outgrown a club that did not convince him that they can match his ambition. Isak has strengthened his wish to leave and, to be honest, who can blame him?