Hit nd and miss

Liverpool break British record to seal £125m Isak deal, but Palace block Guéhi move at 11th hour

Guéhi’s £35m Liverpool move collapses after Glasner’s fury

Additional reporting by Jacob Steinberg

2 Sep 2025 - The Guardian

Andy Hunter Ed Aarons Louise Taylor

Liverpool broke the British transfer record to sign Alexander Isak for £125m from Newcastle on deadline day but were foiled in an attempt to end a stunning window with a deal for Marc Guéhi.

On a contrasting day for the Premier League champions, Isak underwent a medical on Merseyside before signing a six-year deal worth around £300,000 a week. “I feel amazing,” Isak, who will wear the No 9 shirt, said last night. “It’s been a long journey to get here. But I’m super happy to be a part of this team, this club and everything it stands for.”

Liverpool also stepped up efforts to sign the Crystal Palace captain Guéhi, who had a medical in London in anticipation of joining Arne Slot’s side after Steve Parish, the Palace chairman, accepted £35m plus £5m in add-ons. But Palace pulled the plug on the deal when they failed to sign an experienced replacement. Liverpool had submitted a deal sheet to complete the transfer after the 7pm deadline when it collapsed. A bid for Brighton’s Igor Julio fell through and a move for another higher-profile centre-back also failed to materialise.

Oliver Glasner, the Palace manager, is understood to have been furious at the decision to accept Liverpool’s offer and reiterated his plea not to sell his captain during heated talks with Parish. There were even fears that the

Austrian, who led Palace to their first trophy when they won the FA Cup in May, could step down after making it clear that they must keep hold of Guéhi to have a successful season.

The England international is in the final year of his contract and has no intention of signing an extension. Liverpool may renew their attempts to sign Guéhi in January but he could have interest from Barcelona and Bayern Munich if he becomes a free agent next summer. Parish had said after Palace’s win in the Community Shield last month that it would be in the club’s best interests to sell Guéhi rather than lose him for free.

Despite missing out on their main central defensive target, Liverpool ended the summer’s longest and most acrimonious transfer saga in their favour with the record signing of Isak. Liverpool had a £110m bid for the 25-year-old rejected on 1 August. Newcastle’s position at that time was that Isak was not for sale. But his subsequent strike and public statements allied to their £70m signing of Nick Woltemade and attempts to sign either Yoane Wissa or Jørgen Strand Larsen encouraged Liverpool to submit a higher offer on Sunday night. Newcastle accepted a fixed fee of £125m with no add-ons. The cancellation of loyalty bonuses to Isak means the deal is effectively worth £130m to Newcastle, who paid £55m to sign Wissa from Brentford. Wissa behaved similarly to Isak to force his move to St James’ Park.

The fee for Isak falls short of Newcastle’s £150m valuation but still represents a British transfer record and the second time this summer that Liverpool have broken their own transfer record. The champions paid £100m plus £16m in add-ons for Florian Wirtz in June and the Isak deal will take their summer spending above £440m. Liverpool have recouped over £210m in player sales.

Isak refused to play in a friendly against Celtic and did not go on Newcastle’s pre-season tour of Asia, citing a thigh injury. Since then he has been absent from the squad, at one stage training alone at his former club Real Sociedad, and has not spoken to Eddie Howe for more than a fortnight. Howe said pointedly on Friday that morale was strong within the Newcastle squad after a difficult opening two weeks of pre-season. Isak was part of pre-season training for only the first two weeks.

The centre-forward accused Newcastle of breaking a commitment that he could leave if a suitable offer came from a big club and refused overtures from the club hierarchy to reopen negotiations over a new contract.

Liverpool’s deadline business did not end with Isak and Guéhi. They accepted an offer from Aston Villa to sign Harvey Elliott on a season’s loan with an obligation to buy for £35m next summer. Liverpool also received approaches from Milan, Brighton and Palace for Joe Gomez in the final 24 hours of the window but doubts over the Guéhi deal meant they did not consider letting Gomez leave.

Liverpool believe their central defensive options of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Gomez and new signing Giovanni Leoni should cover the failure to sign Guéhi.