Eddie Howe is hoping Alexander Isak with add “the X-factor” to his team as Newcastle close in on a club-record signing. The 22-year-old Sweden international was on Tyneside on Friday with a view to completing a move understood to be worth around £58million from Spanish side Real Sociedad.
Should Isak sign, the deal would smash the £40m the Magpies paid for Brazilian Joelinton during the summer of 2019 and take the club’s spending in the two transfer windows since Amanda Staveley’s consortium took over to around £210m.
On the progress of the deal, Howe said: “It’s not completed. We hope to get it done.” When asked if Isak could be signed in time to play at Wolves on Sunday, he added: “Yes, fingers crossed.
There’s no guarantee with these things because we’re in other people’s hands, but hopefully.” Isak has been a long-term target for the Magpies, whose need has grown in the past week as a result of the hamstring strain suffered by Callum Wilson in Sunday’s 3-3 Premier League draw with champions Manchester City.