\n<\/p>\n
A<\/span>lexander Isak\u2019s old poster-boy image has been removed from the plateglass windows of Newcastle\u2019s club store and, judging by Eddie Howe\u2019s demeanour on Friday night, the Sweden striker could soon be erased from the attacking roll call.<\/p>\n Isak, currently engaged in a standoff with the club as he tries to force a move to Liverpool, was nowhere to be seen as Newcastle drew 2-2 with Espanyol in a St James\u2019 Park friendly. Not that his absence prevented the night\u2019s subtext being all about the man who was not there.<\/p>\n Afterwards Howe admitted he \u201cdoes not know what the future holds\u201d for Isak after revealing he will continue to train in isolation next week. \u201cWe\u2019ve had discussions and it\u2019s clear we can\u2019t involve him in the group at the moment,\u201d said Newcastle\u2019s manager. \u201cI don\u2019t know how long that will last. He is training later than the rest of the squad.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom our perspective we\u2019d like to see him back with the team but the situation has to be right for the team. He\u2019s contracted to us so, of course, there\u2019s a chance he could play for Newcastle again. But I don\u2019t know what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n Given Newcastle\u2019s continuing struggles to sign a replacement, Howe was asked if he could simply insist that a player who swerved the club\u2019s pre-season tour of Singapore and South Korea should honour his deal but the manager, who said he did not think the board had yet disciplined the 25-year-old, demurred. \u201cIt\u2019s not that straightforward,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019d have done that if we could but we\u2019re not currently in a position to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team has, of course, been disrupted by this. But that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t overcome this and come back even stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Matt Targett heads Newcastle level against Espanyol in Friday\u2019s friendly at St James\u2019 Park.<\/span> Photograph: Owen Humphreys\/PA<\/p>\n The sight of more than 20,000 empty seats on Friday night at a customarily full arena will alarm Newcastle\u2019s Saudi Arabian ownership but the sparse crowd was arguably more about Howe saving most of his first XI for Saturday afternoon\u2019s second La Liga friendly against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid than an outright mutiny at an admittedly dismal transfer window before a Champions League campaign.<\/p>\n In Isak\u2019s absence, and with his fellow striker Callum Wilson having moved to West Ham, the endearingly enthusiastic but hugely inexperienced Will Osula led the attacking line as Newcastle, with the outstanding Lewis Miley looking like an England central midfielder in the making, were left without a victory in this troubled pre-season.<\/p>\n With a decent striker on the pitch they would arguably have won. The only problem is that the entire No 9 species seem to have developed an allergy to Tyneside. Bryan Mbeumo, Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Liam Delap and Benjamin Sesko rank among those forwards who have turned Newcastle down and the St James\u2019 Park board will not countenance selling Isak to Anfield for a sum well in excess of \u00a3110m until two new attacking faces are secured.<\/p>\n With the transfer window\u2019s closure fast approaching it is all turning into a race against the clock, not to mention a game of who blinks first. Despite excluding Isak from a training ground barbecue last week in the wake of the striker\u2019s unsanctioned trip to train alone at his old club Real Sociedad, Howe still does not know where the striker who scored 27 goals for him last season will be playing when Liverpool visit on this month\u2019s bank holiday Monday.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>Eddie Howe watches as his Newcastle team draw 2-2 with Espanyol at St James\u2019 Park.<\/span> Photograph: Lee Smith\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n Despite, albeit weakening, protestations to the contrary, Howe\u2019s demeanour suggested he feels he and his dressing room would be infinitely better off without a player who has evidently checked out, mentally at least, from Tyneside. It would surely be much better to reinvest Liverpool\u2019s fee on some decent new players \u2013 the Coventry midfielder Jack Rudoni anyone? \u2013 and create a new hero or two.<\/p>\n Although a good-humoured, family-dominated crowd of just over 30,000 was not exactly typical of the more vehemently partisan Premier League crew, there is a sense that many Newcastle fans have already loosened the emotional ties that until very recently bound them tightly to Isak. Granted they feel more than a little let down but there is a mood of almost shrugging acceptance that Liverpool have turned his head and they will never again sing their former Abba-pastiche anthem, Gimme, Gimme a Striker from Sweden.<\/p>\n Should Yoane Wissa, Ollie Watkins, Nicolas Jackson \u2013 (not that Newcastle fans seem overly keen on him) \u2013 J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen, Samu Aghehowa, Gon\u00e7alo Ramos or any other potential attacking recruits start scoring regularly it will surely be a case of \u201cthe king is dead, long live the king\u201d.<\/p>\n In any case, Howe already has a Targett on his side. Matt, a veteran full-back, operating on the left of a midfield three, discovered his latent Isak streak as he met Miley\u2019s cross to head Newcastle level after Edu Exp\u00f3sito has expertly half-volleyed Espanyol into the lead. After that Newcastle\u2019s impressive debutant in goal, the Southampton loanee Aaron Ramsdale, saved Javi Puado\u2019s penalty before Murphy\u2019s goal preceded Kike Garc\u00eda\u2019s deserved leveller.<\/p>\n There is evidently much work to be done on Tyneside before next weekend\u2019s Premier League opener at Aston Villa. \u201cThe balance of our squad isn\u2019t quite right,\u201d said Howe. \u201cBut I\u2019m hopeful we can adjust that in the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexander Isak\u2019s old poster-boy image has been removed from the plateglass windows of Newcastle\u2019s club store and, judging by Eddie Howe\u2019s demeanour on Friday night, the Sweden striker could soon be erased from the attacking roll call. Isak, currently engaged in a standoff with the club as he tries to force a move to Liverpool,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3037,8372,2284,518,8373,8374,7895,3677],"class_list":{"0":"post-14770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-doesnt","9":"tag-downbeat","10":"tag-future","11":"tag-holds","12":"tag-howe","13":"tag-isak","14":"tag-newcastle","15":"tag-united"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}