“Special” £120k-p/w talent now “wants” to join Liverpool

Liverpool are moving like the champions that they are in the summer transfer market, with Arne Slot’s side welcoming a wealth of talented players to the team.

Slot has been rewarded for his magnificent maiden campaign, all right, with Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike and Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong and Giorgi Mamardashvili joining a title-winning side hungry for even more success.

And there’s more still to come. Liverpool’s careful planning across the past few years has allowed them to move into his powerful position.

With Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez both slated for Anfield exits, a few more offensive additions might lie around the corner.

Liverpool’s next transfer plans

Should Diaz and Nunez indeed be sold, Liverpool have a variety of options that they might exercise to achieve the next phase of Slot’s sweeping plan.

Ekitike has linked up with the Redmen on their pre-season tour in Asia, but he is a dynamic forward who could play out on the left, should another centre-forward be coveted.

Out-and-out wingers such as Anthony Gordon and Real Madrid’s Rodrygo have also been heavily linked in recent weeks.

But if Liverpool instead choose to sign a new number nine, it’s Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak who has emerged as the leading contender, with Spanish sources claiming that the 25-year-old is right at the top of the club’s summer shortlist.

Given that Fabrizio Romano has since revealed the Sweden international “wants” to sign for the Merseysiders, there’s little question that things are going to start to accelerate – with a move to Anfield said to be his “priority”.

The Magpies, it should be said, will not roll over and allow their talisman to waltz away from St. James’ Park without a fight. Indeed, they would be seeking a British record £130m payment.

What Alexander Isak would bring to Liverpool

Ekitike is a talented and versatile forward, but he’s undoubtedly a work in progress. In Isak, Liverpool would sign themselves a number nine right at the top of his game and with a wealth of Premier League experience.

His clinical shooting his a thing to behold.

The 25-year-old joined Newcastle from Real Sociedad for a club-record £63m fee in 2022 and he has since forged quite the career for himself in England, the frontman of a fast-rising outfit, qualifying for the Champions League in two of his three terms and beating Liverpool to lift the Carabao Cup in March.

Having shaken off the injury issues that plagued him across his debut campaign, the £120k-per-week Isak is “the best striker in the world” to some, with analyst Raj Chohan saying exactly that toward the end of the 2024/25 campaign, with the forward having scored 27 goals and supplied six assists across all competitions.

The circumstances around the Liverpool bid for this wonderful Premier League player offer certain similarities to when Jurgen Klopp oversaw the £75m acquisition of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton, the Dutchman becoming the subject of a world-record fee for a defender at the time.

Isak’s £130m price tag would also make him a record-breaking player, should he leave Newcastle this summer, which illustrates the depths of Liverpool’s desire, for they are willing to spend significant fees when the player is considered to be talented enough.

They got it right the first time. Could they strike again? Van Dijk, now Liverpool’s title-winning captain, has completed 319 fixtures for the Reds, notching 28 goals and 13 assists, winning the full gamut of silverware and cementing himself as one of the greatest players of his generation.

A leader and far more than just a tough-tackling defender (although that is one of the staples of the 33-year-old’s skill set), Van Dijk warranted such a payment because he is so much more than his position defines him as.

Isak is the same. As per FBref, the centre-forward ranked among the top 16% of positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues last year for shot-creating actions, the top 13% for progressive passes, the top 7% for progressive carries and the top 8% for successful take-ons per 90.

He would be tasked with scoring the goals for Liverpool, but Isak would also be expected to perform as an all-encompassing talisman. His talent demands it.

Of course, Isak and Van Dijk are not positionally similar, but they are two of the most talented players in their respective positions, having cut their teeth and developed their skills elsewhere in the English top flight before making the leap to Merseyside.

Moreover, neither would be the youngest on the block when first arriving at Anfield, for Van Dijk was 26 years old when he made the move and Isak is, of course, 25 years old.

In a way though, this bespeaks their maturity and completeness, arriving at the club with ready-made skills at the highest level, eager to lead the team through a period of sustained success.

Described as a “special football player” by pundit Daniel Sturridge, Isak has the chance to emulate Van Dijk in making the move to Liverpool for a record fee after making his name elsewhere.

Newcastle’s remarkable rise differs to that of Southampton, but the similarities are there.

If Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes do manage to pull this incredible feat off, it might just prove to be every bit as transformative as that time when Klopp rewrote the script with the capture of Van Dijk.

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Liverpool are still ready to be active in the summer transfer market.