I wanted a transfer like Alexander Isak, so my agent gave me detailed plan of how to ruin training sessions

ALEXANDER ISAK’S agent has had a lot of criticism for how he has handled this Newcastle to Liverpool move — and I get it.

Isak has mentioned broken promises about being allowed to leave, but things change in football.

PAAlexander Isak should have played his Newcastle exit with more subtlety[/caption]

How many times has a player signed for a manager who has told them, “We’re building this team around you”, and then they’ve not played for six months?

But because of that, I don’t blame Isak for trusting his agent over the club and trying to force things through by not showing up.

At the end of the day, Newcastle want what’s best for Newcastle. His agent selfishly will want a good deal himself but, ultimately, his job is to do right by his player.

But how they should have played it is how I played it with my agent when I was pushing to move from Walsall to Watford back in the summer of 2010.

In private, my agent said to me, “You’re going to have to kick up a fuss here.

“You’re going back to training and you’ll do all of the running, but as soon as a ball is involved, you’re going to have to ruin sessions, you’re going to have to kick balls away.

“But importantly, you can’t let anyone on the outside know what’s going on.”

It was really hard, you would go home feeling guilty, being a d*** in training for no reason, burning bridges for people you quite like.

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But you’ve just got to remember who you’re doing it for: yourself.
That’s how Isak will be feeling. This is a career-changing, career-defining move.

You’re going from Newcastle to one of the biggest clubs in world football in Liverpool, where you are probably going to win major titles.

But Isak hasn’t gone about it the smart way, and the agent’s been quite lazy in that regard, making big mistakes.

He’s making his player look like he’s a troublemaker because he’s not getting it done.

He should have said to Isak straight away: “Go into work, tick over, do all the runs, do all of that so you’re fit, but as soon as the ball is introduced, claim your back hurts and you go inside.”

If it was done like that, then the messaging is very different.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe can then go to the media and say, “He is training but he’s got a bit of an injury issue”.

You can then let people speculate, but they can’t deny that you’re there.

Now, I know these are very different circumstances in terms of the size of the clubs involved, but the principles still apply. You have to be smart in the way you go about stuff like this.

It is the same with Yoane Wissa and the way he has tried to leave Brentford for Newcastle, deleting pictures on his social media like he is a bitter ex. It’s unnecessary.

And there’s another angle that people aren’t looking at with Isak.

Who is the most famous Swedish footballer? Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

He is remembered as winning titles in multiple countries, didn’t worry about upsetting the apple cart to get a move, and is recognised as his nation’s greatest ever.

Isak will definitely be thinking, “If I stay at Newcastle, I will be a Newcastle hero, but will I be remembered up there with Zlatan?

“Probably not. I need to go and win titles at the biggest and the best clubs in the world”.

And all this talk about ruining his legacy at Newcastle? Isak’s legacy is set in stone. He played a massive part in them winning a major domestic trophy for the first time in 70 years.

Greats like Alan Shearer or Peter Beardsley never managed it.

Isak will always be in those pictures of Newcastle lifting the Carabao Cup. No fan backlash or hatred will ever erase that.

And even if Isak went on to beat Shearer’s Newcastle and Premier League goalscoring record, will that be more satisfying than winning trophies at Liverpool? No.

Most logical fans will turn around and say: We made about £90million back on that kid and he  scored 23 league goals, qualified for the Champions League and won us the Carabao Cup.

Has he left you in a bad place? No.

It’s now a case of who’s going to blink first, and I think we’re closer to a deal  than last week, as Isak has dug in and said “the relationship can’t continue”.

Howe wants a resolution. Anthony Gordon has said the squad needs to be resolved. They’re looking at Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen. They’re still trying to get Wissa over the line.

It’s like they’re already spending the dough and, with the PSR issues they have, there is only one sale that can bridge that gap — and it’s Isak.

They need it to go over the line.

It’s the same with Crystal Palace letting Eberechi Eze leave. He has dealt with question marks over his future in a better way, but there’s still something to be said about him playing off and delaying Tottenham while waiting for Arsenal to swoop.

There were reports that Spurs would be willing to include Richarlison in a swap deal for Eze — really? Richarlison, the guy who started the season with two goals?

I know Richy better than most, having played with him at Watford, and when he is on it, he is tough to stop and Thomas Frank has seen him in pre-season and said, “Go on son, show me what you got”.

The biggest test will be if Frank drops him for the Manchester City game.

If he does, I’d say he needs to leave Spurs because it’s evident that Frank doesn’t really fancy him.

Richy needs to be playing consistently this season as a World Cup is around the corner with Brazil.

For me, Frank needs to stick with him and see what sort of run he can go on.

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