He talks about the short-termism – and perhaps the short-sightedness – of the new England boss, Thomas Tuchel, who, in 2017, refused to welcome a teenager Alexander Isak to Borussia Dortmund, even going so far as to claim that he had never heard of him . That was petty. It was also an error in judgment.
Today's Isak is the best striker in the Premier League. If that puts him ahead of Manchester City's Erling Haaland, which it should on current form, he is arguably the best in the world right now.
Owning such an asset is both the dream and the dilemma for Newcastle, who identified Isak's potential and paid Real Sociedad a club record £63 million in the summer of 2022.
However, how are they going to keep him at St James' Park now, especially amid huge interest from Arsenal and explicit ambition from the player himself? The best on the planet don't play for teams in the bottom half of the Premier League, which a few weeks ago was where Newcastle resided.
A complex situation has a simple solution: give the Swede the platform he needs without having to leave the station. By scoring seven goals in his last five league games, Isak has helped lift Newcastle from 12th to fifth.
Stay there, or higher, and the Champions League will make the grass already under your feet look much greener.
Newcastle United's Alexander Isak is currently the best striker in the Premier League
Owning an asset of this type is both the dream and the dilemma for Newcastle amidst the interest.
The best on the planet don't play for teams that aren't near the top of the Premier League.
To that end, Isak is the master of his own destiny, and that was the point Eddie Howe highlighted when, in late October, Mail Sport broke the story that contract negotiations did not take place, despite the assumption that a better agreement was near.
At that point, he had scored one in seven since the start of the season. Both the injuries and the doubts were disappearing.
“If a player says he has big ambitions, he actually has to do business on the pitch – it's a two-way thing, the challenge is always rejected,” Howe said, in a rare but necessary use of a public word. forum to send a message to his dressing room.
“As a player, you can sit back and say: I want to play European football, but then you also have to play at that level.”
Isak's response has been 11 goals in 12 games and, if form and fitness prevail, that will almost certainly mean a return to the Champions League for his current club. It would also diminish what feels like a growing certainty that he will move on at the end of the season.
His contract expires in 2028 and he is already the highest earner, which is why Newcastle top brass feel a new deal, including a bumper pay rise, is not necessary. At least not yet.
Offers for Isak are likely to come in any scenario, and it could well be that the hierarchy decides to cash in on a bonus.
They go on record saying that every player has his price, a truth born of the rules of profit and sustainability, but it was an admission that troubled the likes of Isak and other stars within the team, raising concerns about the direction of the Saudi-owned club. and the speed of the project.
Thomas Tuchel, in 2017, refused to entertain a teenage Isak at Borussia Dortmund
He should now be ahead of Erling Haaland as the Premier League's best in-form striker.
Isak's numbers are comparable to Alan Shearer's with 42 goals in 60 starts in the top flight
It would still take a British record fee in excess of the £106.8m Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez to lure Isak away from Newcastle, and so it should be when considering the pair's respective production.
Howe and most of his supporters understand the economics at play, but they don't want to lose their liquid-limbed hero with the gait of a marathon runner and the speed of a sprinter. Yes, there is a lightweight frame, but it comes with great strength, not to mention a spectacular finish.
The head coach has an additional connection because he signed Isak, and when he becomes convinced of a player's value and place on his team, it is not a conviction that comes easily. Selling to buy is a reality of PSR, but when you have already bought the best, what do you strive for?
“When I saw him, I was instantly captivated by his game,” Howe recalls. 'I love how he plays and expresses himself. I still enjoy watching him as a coach now.
“Off the field he is calm, calm, that's what you see on the field. He doesn't get too excited, which for a striker is a great quality, because that coldness and tranquility in front of the goal is part of his personality, part of what which is. He seems to have an extra half second when other players don't.
'With Alex, the beautiful thing about his attitude is that he wants to improve. It has all the ingredients. I need to find the things that can make him better and I can't stop for him.
'His game is in a good place right now. “My job is not to sit back and appreciate that, my job is to try to find areas where you can improve, push you towards that and never stop pushing you.”
Isak should take note of that sentiment. Howe is arguably the most improved player as a manager in the Premier League. He should have been the FA's first choice ahead of Tuchel. Newcastle crushed Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 last season and three of the goalscorers at times struggled to get a game under former manager Steve Bruce.
The only misstep of his early career was the £8 million move to Dortmund.
But Dortmund's loss was Sociedad's gain and, surprisingly, they sold him there for a fee of £8m.
Eddie Howe has arguably improved players the most as a manager in the Premier League.
The other scorer was Dan Burn. Fly the nest and there is always the possibility that the trajectory of personal improvement that Howe and his backroom offer will level out.
Isak turned 25 in September. The next five years of his career should be his best, and that's a scary thought given his 42 Premier League goals so far have come from just 60 starts. His numbers are comparable to Alan Shearer's.
However, as a player, he is almost incomparable to anyone, and Howe struggled when pressed to look like him this week. He nodded when Thierry Henry was mentioned earlier, but the Arsenal legend, while still better than Isak, didn't have the same elasticity and ball-on-a-string wizardry.
So what are the “ingredients” that the Newcastle manager talks about that make him so unique? If Haaland, Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski are the best strikers at finishing off each other's work, Isak is an in-and-out equivalent who can create opportunities for himself and his teammates.
He scored eight Everton shirts with a superb dribble assist last year, and that clip has been viewed 5.4 million times on YouTube, more than any of his goals.
It's like his feet are double-jointed, so he can suddenly manipulate and maneuver a soccer ball. Like a fly and its vision in slow motion, it buzzes between the bodies without being crushed. And that goes back to his childhood.
Isak was born in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm, to Eritrean parents who fled the civil war in their East African homeland. He was and is a smart boy. His father was a teacher and his mother was a caregiver, and his second son only knew football as a means of participation and social enjoyment.
But there, in the cages near the apartment block where he was raised, his talent was obvious. Against older boys he had to improvise.
The Swedish striker has been compared to Arsenal and French legend Thierry Henry
Inevitably, he was labeled 'the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic', but he has always been his own man.
So much so that, at the age of 14, coaches at top-flight AIK Solna told Isak and his parents that he needed to focus less on moves and tricks and more on applying his skills to the needs of a professional footballer.
After two years he was already scoring in his senior debut. This made him the youngest goalscorer in AIK's history and, a year later, he had the same honor with the Sweden national team, scoring at the age of 17 years and three months.
Inevitably, he was labeled “the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic” but Isak has always been his own man. The most notable similarity is that neither enjoys such a correlation. However, if you watch it every week you will see shades of Henry, Samuel Eto'o and even a bit of Paolo Wanchope: pace, goals and surprise.
The only misstep of those early years was that £8m move to Dortmund (he could have signed for Real Madrid after a FaceTime call and a charming offensive from Brazilian Ronaldo), because in Germany he became a political pawn amid Tuchel's fallout with the club's chief scout. , Sven Mislintat and others in the recruitment process.
Turns out they actually had a good eye for a player. This led to an apology from Dortmund's chief executive and, over two and a half seasons, the highlight was a 14-goal loan spell to Willem II in the Netherlands.
But Dortmund's loss was Sociedad's gain and, surprisingly, he was sold to the Spanish for the same £8m they had paid AIK. If the Bundesliga club had cared about him like they did with players like Haaland and Jude Bellingham, they could have put a zero at the end of that certain time.
Three seasons later the Society had increased its investment eightfold. Newcastle pored over every minute of his playing time in La Liga, and there they saw the development of what they believed the modern complete striker could be.
Sources say Howe was as mesmerized as the defenders by his dribbles, feints and darts. In fact, there is something attractive about Isak. From his sharp wit off the field to his even sharper cunning on it, he is the smiling killer. Everyone has heard of it now.