As the clock ticks on a possible British record transfer for Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak, there is one man who must be feeling the pressure as much as anyone – his agent Vlado Lemic.
With just five days left of the transfer window, Isak’s scorched earth policy at St James’ Park is reaching its end game.
Newcastle say he is not for sale but Liverpool’s interest endures and the fact they have not moved for an alternative suggests they believe a deal remains possible.
Insiders now expect the saga to go down to the wire.
But for all the focus on who will blink first out of Newcastle and Liverpool, Isak’s preferred destination, it is Serbian representative Lemic who might have most to lose with 1 September looming on the horizon.
Magpies fans have expressed their anger towards the striker (Photo: PA)
Some at Newcastle feel Isak has been badly advised by those around him.
By burning bridges he has created what Eddie Howe said was a “lose-lose” situation for the Magpies, and his legacy at the club has been torched.
Isak’s view is that promises have been broken and the trust between him and the club’s hierarchy has evaporated.
He is, though, yet to expand on the points made in his public statement posted on Instagram seven days ago.
But why has the situation become so toxic so quickly? Perhaps a little-known rule around agents explains why the drive to get the deal done this summer has been so intense.
“The stakes are high for all concerned,” explains Tom Keane, partner at Brandsmiths and former head of football negotiations at Manchester United.
“It’s a very difficult situation for everyone but there’s a lot of pressure on the agent as well.”
What do the rules say?
Eddie Howe believes it is a ‘lose-lose’ situation for the club (Photo: PA)Under Fifa rules, a representation contract between a player and their agent can only last for a maximum of two years.
That, Keane suggests, could be increasing the urgency on the player’s side for the Anfield switch to happen.
“The player is obviously desperate for this move but it seems as though it is not as clear-cut as either he or the agent thought it would be,” he says.
“There’s also the added complication that agent contracts with a player can only be two years, which was introduced a long time ago to give players freedom to move between agents if they are unhappy with the services provided or if they feel like another agent may be better placed to assist.
“I don’t know how long Isak’s agent has left on his representation contract with the player but if it runs out during the course of this season and the Liverpool move does not materialise then the agent may have a fight on his hands to keep the player under representation.
“The commission for a deal of this size would be in the millions of pounds, so there is a lot at stake here for the agent as well as Newcastle and the player.”
It is a fascinating aspect of a deal that has been picked at and pored over all summer, as is how Newcastle are dealing with the player’s attitude behind-the-scenes.
In public they have left the route open to rapprochement.
Whatever Howe might think of Isak’s conduct, he has been diplomatic in press conferences and refused to condemn the player’s actions.
That has even extended to the club refusing to be drawn on whether Isak has been officially disciplined.
It is understood the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), who have a team of lawyers on staff, are being kept abreast of developments.
Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan insists he won’t be sold this summer (Photo: Reuters)But Keane says that with such a breach of contract, all options are open to Newcastle.
“The Premier League contract has a disciplinary procedure set out in it but the long and short of it is that Isak has probably now gone far enough that they would be entitled to terminate his contract,” he says.
“Obviously that’s not going to happen because they want to keep him under contract to either retain him as a player or command a big fee for him if they do decide to sell him.
“There’s two questions here that will be dictating what Newcastle do: is he refusing to train with the first team? Is he refusing to play?
“Typically if he has committed the breaches that have been reported, he will be fined two weeks’ wages for that.
“I suspect, though, that throughout this period they are not paying him at all because these are very serious breaches.
“I would think Isak doesn’t really care at this stage about those fines because his end game is to get a move to Liverpool.”
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Will a deal happen?
Keane was at the coalface of a pressurised Premier League club when he oversaw negotiations at Manchester United for a summer transfer window three years ago.
His take is that time is running out for Liverpool to get a deal completed.
“It’s a tricky situation because it is unlikely Newcastle anticipated the player was going to go to this extent to push for a move,” he says.
“They don’t want to let him go but has the situation become untenable?
“From a transfer negotiation point of view there is a premium [Newcastle] would be looking for from Liverpool for disrupting their season as they have, especially if they cannot find a suitable replacement, and how realistic is it that they actually pay that premium?”
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