Arsenal’s stance on Alexander Isak transfer revealed after £150m star pushes for Newcastle exit

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Arsenal are happy with their move for Viktor Gyokeres despite Alexander Isak informing Newcastle that he’s open to a departure this summer, Arsenal Insider understands.

Mikel Arteta has long admired Isak and seen him as a dream signing, although the Magpies’ excessive asking price has deterred the Gunners from making a move.

The North London outfit believe the Swede has been looking at a potential move elsewhere and, not willing to waste their time pursuing a player who wasn’t pushing for a switch to the Emirates, turned their attention to his international teammate.

Gyokeres is set to sign for Arsenal for £63 million, essentially ruling a move for Isak out for the Gunners, even if he was willing to swap the north-east for N5.

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Arsenal ‘got wind of the fact’ that Alexander Isak wanted to move somewhere else

Scoring 23 goals and registering six assists in the Premier League last season, Isak has unsurprisingly garnered interest this summer.

However, with a mooted £150 million price tag, the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool had assumed that a deal for the prolific number nine was unlikely.

Isak has now thrown a spanner in the works by expressing his desire to explore a potential transfer away from Newcastle.

It appears to be too little too late on the Arsenal front for the 25-year-old, with the Gunners committing their resources to Gyokeres.

That said, transfer expert Graeme Bailey has told Arsenal Insider that Arsenal felt Isak ‘had eyes on something else’.

“Some Arsenal fans have wondered why they are not going to be in the Alexander Isak sweepstakes, but as we said previously on Arsenal Insider, whilst a player they really like – they got wind of the fact he had his eyes on something else,” he said.

“Arsenal are not in this to waste time, if they thought they had a chance with Isak, they would have been in the mix, but that is not the case, and they are very happy with their move for Viktor Gyokeres, who they hope will be with them by the end of the week.”

Arsenal are right to have moved away from Alexander Isak

Whilst Isak would have been a potentially transformational signing for Arsenal, they could not afford to stand still and wait for the player to make up his mind.

The Gunners need to assemble their squad as quickly as possible so that the incoming players can integrate and assimilate into Mikel Arteta’s system before the season starts.

With Isak indicating that he wasn’t interested in a move to the Emirates, they were correct to not try and hopelessly convince him, whilst other targets like Gyokeres may have got away from them.

Even if the player had been on board with joining Arsenal, Andrea Berta would’ve been right to hold reservations about splashing over £100 million on one player, who has a track record of recurring injury issues.

Arsenal had plenty of areas that needed addressing this summer, and allocating that significant a portion of their budget to Isak would likely have prohibited them from doing all the work they needed to across the board.