Even as he sat out the fifth and final game of a tumultuous pre-season at Newcastle United, Alexander Isak continues to cast a long shadow over the club’s preparations for the new campaign.

In the cold war between player and club, nothing dramatic has changed since Isak was not on the flight to Newcastle’s tour of the Far East two weeks ago.

The club’s official stance – repeated at the highest level at the club – is that he is not for sale.

But perhaps a more realistic reflection of things is that his departure moves closer if the following boxes are ticked: Liverpool come close to their valuation of £150m and two appropriately high-level strikers are sourced in the final three weeks of the transfer window.

This weekend, though, has seen a sharpening of the rhetoric from Eddie Howe aro

See Full Page