Pundit Alan Shearer has hit out at Newcastle United star Yoane Wissa and Liverpool summer signing Alexander Isak over their decisions in recent months.
In the summer, Newcastle signed Wissa and Nick Woltemade to replace Isak, who joined Liverpool in a British record transfer worth around £125m.
Woltemade has made a great start at St James’ Park, scoring three goals in four Premier League games, though Wissa is yet to make his debut for Newcastle as he’s building fitness following an inactive summer.
Wissa suffered a setback during last month’s international break while playing for DR Congo, and Shearer has argued that he “could’ve shown more responsibility” by prioritising Newcastle and avoiding playing so many minutes for his country.
“It will be a really difficult decision for Wissa not to go to AFCON because you always want to represent your country,” Shearer said in an interview with Betfair.
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“But what I would say is, because of him not training or playing during the summer, he could’ve shown more responsibility in not playing as much as he did in those two games when he went away on international duty and hadn’t played at all.
“But it’s really tough to say to someone they can’t and won’t represent their country when it means so much. And we know AFCON is huge and players want to play in that tournament.
“It’ll be a tough ask, but I understand that there’ll be a lot of people thinking that he’s never played for Newcastle and he needs to show some loyalty towards us.
“I get it and understand that point-of-view because Newcastle shelled out a lot of money on him and he hasn’t been able to take to the St James’ Park turf as yet. It’d be a really tough decision for him and Newcastle. Whether there’s a way around it, I’m not so sure.”
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Like Wissa, Isak has struggled since spitting his dummy out in pursuit of a summer transfer and has made a slow start to this campaign.
Isak’s Sweden are unlikely to qualify for next year’s World Cup as they have suffered losses against Kosovo and Switzerland in this international break.
This leaves Sweden bottom of their World Cup qualifying group after four games, with recent results costing manager Jon Dahl Tomasson his job.
Now, Shearer has explained why he thinks “the summer hasn’t helped Isak”.
“It hasn’t been the start to the season that Isak would’ve wanted. When you consider Sweden’s front three of Gyokeres, Isak and Elanga and you can’t score and are on the brink of not qualifying for the World Cup,” Shearer added on Isak.
“Obviously, the manager has paid the price and lost his job which is no surprise. Obviously with the Newcastle situation, Isak not playing or training and understandably hasn’t hit the ground running at Liverpool, he was probably looking to get to full fitness at this international break, but it’s gone the other way.
“It hasn’t worked, he and they haven’t scored and can’t score which, when you look at the ability of that front three, being bottom of the group doesn’t look right at all. The summer certainly hasn’t helped Isak.”
