Why Liverpool snubbed Alexander Isak as £85million transfer decision emerges

Liverpool passed up the chance to sign Alexander Isak when they instead chose to spend a then club-record fee on Darwin Nunez - which left Newcastle with a free run at the Swedish star when they signed him in 2022.

The Reds landed the Benfica star in an £85million deal after he had performed impressively in Portugal, which led to interest from a number of clubs around Europe. Isak was also on their radar after he'd continued to catch the attention at Real Sociedad.

Jurgen Klopp's growing influence at Anfield meant he was having more and more of a say over who the club would sign - especially in a post-Michael Edwards world.

The German previously wanted to sign Julian Brandt instead of Mohamed Salah in 2017 before being convinced to go after the Egyptian, which has proved a masterstroke. Years later though, after winning the Premier League and the Champions League, he had even more influence.

The club's former director of research Ian Graham has admitted that Klopp's say over transfer activity was a major factor in Nunez, who had scored against the Reds in the Champions League, being picked over Isak.

READ MORE: Liverpool can offer Marc Guehi dream shirt number with summer transfer close

READ MORE: Alexander Isak to Liverpool: Eddie Howe's private reaction with talks planned

He told the Financial Times: "Jurgen created a lot of success for the club, so it’s understandable why it moved in that direction,' Graham said. In 2022, he signed Darwin Nunez instead of Alexander Isak. Both players, if you look at top young centre-forwards in Europe, they would be number one and two — or two and three but [Erling] Haaland was going to [Manchester] City and out of our price range.

"Jurgen preferred Nunez. It would be very churlish of me to say, “It’s terrible that Jurgen had his choice”, when in the past Jürgen had been persuaded by me and my colleagues of a different choice. And it was still the case that we signed good players — in Nunez’s case, one of the best young strikers in Europe."

Liverpool's loss has proved to be Newcastle's gain and the Reds are now being linked with Isak as they prepare to sell Nunez this summer. Within months of his signing Klopp was having to defend Nunez's record in front of goal as he finishing kept deserting him.

Isak has scored several big goals against the Reds and is now valued at well over £100m with the Magpies determined to keep their star man.

Since their arrivals Nunez has scored 25 goals in 95 Premier League games. Meanwhile Isak, who has had to deal with injury woes whilst at St James' Park, has struck 54 goals in 86 Premier League games.

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.