Fresh release clause claim as Newcastle United look to strike deal with 36-goal striker amid Arsenal interest

Isak signed a six-year deal at Newcastle when he arrived from Real Sociedad in 2022 for £63million. The striker has since scored 36 goals in 73 appearances for the club, attracting transfer interest from the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal.

After scoring 25 goals for Newcastle last season, Isak became the club’s highest-scoring player over a single campaign since Alan Shearer over 20 years ago.

Keen to keep hold of the Swede, The Magpies are looking to tie Isak down to a new long-term deal at St James’ Park. It comes after the club agreed a new deal with Anthony Gordon which is still yet to be officially announced by the club.

Fresh reports have offered some potential insight into the negotiations regarding a new deal for Isak. TalkSPORT claim Isak wants a new deal that will see him become Newcastle’s top earner as well as a significant release clause in order to commit his future to the club.

Last year, Newcastle agreed such a deal with Bruno Guimaraes that saw the Brazilian become the club’s top earner and included a time-sensitive £100million release clause in a deal that runs until 2028. The Magpies also agreed a new deal with midfielder Joelinton earlier this year after head coach Eddie Howe voiced concerns that the club would be forced to sell the player over the summer had a new deal not been signed.

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The club also faces more pressing contract situations regarding the likes of Sean Longstaff, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson, Fabian Schar and Dan Burn, whose current deals are set to expire at the end of the season. While extension clauses can be triggered for some, Newcastle risk being left vulnerable to pre-contract agreements or cut-price offers for those players in January if they are unable to agree new deals. And that is something Howe is desperate to avoid.

“Losing players to free transfers is not something we want to be fighting as a football club for many different reasons,” he told The Gazette last month. “Probably the biggest reason for that is that it's a distraction for the players and in my experience, players don’t tend to play well when they start to run their contract down into that last year, it's a very uncertain time for them.

“We want players at their best but we want to protect the asset value of the individual player as well. To replace any player that is in and around our squad is going to cost us a lot of money so we've got to be very careful with those decisions.”