‘Not right’ Alexander Isak told to do his Newcastle ‘duty’ by Alan Shearer

August 20, 2025
8:09 pm

Alan Shearer has told Alexander Isak he is not going about things “the right way” after the Newcastle striker downed tools in an effort to force through a move to Liverpool.

The future of the Swedish striker has been the story of the summer but not one that has an obvious end point with Liverpool seemingly refusing to stump up the cash Newcastle are after while Isak is adamant he will not play for the club again.

The latest update was an Instagram post from Isak explaining his absence from the PFA Awards in which he criticised the club for broken promises and suggested a departure would be best for all parties.

Newcastle in turn put out a statement saying they had no intention of letting Isak go meaning this drama is likely to rumble on for a few weeks yet.

In the meantime, Newcastle’s favourite son Shearer has criticised the way both Isak and Yoane Wissa have gone about their potential moves and said it is not “right” for players to go on strike.

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“I don’t like players that have got a contract and are refusing to train or refusing to play,” he said on the Rest is Football. “You have a contract behind you.

“I understand there’s two sides to every story. Isak might have a story which he hasn’t spoken about yet [Shearer was speaking before Isak’s social media post]. Wissa might have a story which he hasn’t spoken about yet. I think I read, this morning, he’s deleted all his photographs of being in the Brentford shirt or anything to do with Brentford.

“I don’t know his side of the story, but I don’t like it. It’s exactly the same as the Isak situation. It is not right. If you’ve got three years left, you can’t not train or play. You’re being paid by the football club, and whatever reason or whatever hump you’ve got or gripe you’ve got with whoever – chairman, owners, manager – whatever it may be, you still have a duty to the other players because of that contract and to the football club to go and train and go and play.

“There’s a way of getting out of a football club and refusing to train and play is not the right way.”

Shearer did agree that it is a two-way street and that football clubs are happy to dump players if they decide they no longer want them, pointing to the recent example of exiled Gianluigi Donnarumma at PSG.

“Don’t talk to me about loyalty and football with either football clubs or football players. We can use Donnarumma as the example and we can use the Man United players who are now being forced to train with the reserves or train away from the first team squad, you know, because Man United all of a sudden want to get rid of them.

“So I totally get that and understand that, that loyalty with football clubs and football players – no chance.”