Chris Waugh shares what he's heard about Alexander Isak following unfounded rumours he'd rejected NUFC's contract offer

It was recently reported that Alexander Isak had rejected a contract offer from Newcastle United opening the floodgates for a barrage of stories linking him once again to Arsenal and Liverpool.

These rumours came just days after Yasir Al-Rumayyan told the club to reject any offers for Isak and a report from sources close to the club spoke about contract talks, which were shelved in 2024, being reopened at the end of the season.

Despite that, Caught Offside ran a story saying that Isak had rejected an offer by the club and several mainstream media outlets picked up the story and ran with it.

We called it out as nonsense at the time for the very reasons mentioned above, but we're just a tiny voice and couldn't stop the story from gaining traction amongst fans of a nervous disposition.

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The Athletic puts to bed the rumour regarding Alexander Isak's contract rejection

As we always say, we have no connections inside the club, no 'sources' that feed us information, we just do our research and apply common sense.

Thankfully, Chris Waugh of The Athletic does have sources. Reliable sources. In his recent Q&A, he was asked if there was any truth in the rumours that Isak had rejected a contract, to which Waugh replied:

"Not that I am aware of. The message back on that front is that nothing has changed. Contract talks will take place towards the end of the season, if not post-season, once Newcastle have discovered whether they will be playing Champions League football in 2025-26."

Chris Waugh explains why any sale of Alexander Isak would carry an enormous fee

Waugh goes on to explain that the club are in no rush to get Isak to sign a new deal. He's already on good terms and his contract runs to 2028. However, they do want to show their appreciation for what he's done for the club with a pay rise.

He also explains that there's still a chunk of amortisation costs involved if anyone wanted to sign Isak as well as Real Sociedad being entitled to a percentage of any sale, making a move this summer almost impossible.

"The club insist they are in a strong position to rebuff interest, too. There is still around £30million ($38.8m) of amortisation costs regarding Isak, plus Real Sociedad inserted a sell-on clause in his deal, so Newcastle would need an astronomical offer to even contemplate selling the striker — beyond the fact he is world-class and borderline priceless to them from a footballing perspective."\

We can rest easy once again.