Alexander Isak finally made his Liverpool debut last night in their 3-2 Champions League win over Atletico Madrid after his £125 million move from Newcastle United.
The Swedish striker drew a blank on his debut as the Reds relied on Andrew Robertson, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk for their goals.
Despite now having turned out for Liverpool, the talk about his exit from Newcastle hasn’t yet died down completely.
Rafa Benitez, who managed both clubs, has now had his say on Isak’s Toon exit last night on TNT Sports (h/t Newcastle World).
Rafa Bentiez reveals the most unsecretive secret in the history of secrets
We’re not sure it was the revelation Rafa was hoping it would be as he shared his big ‘secret’ for the UK TV audience.
“I will tell you a secret, talking to Newcastle United people, they are missing him. He was doing so well, he was adapting to the style, to the game. He is clever with his movements.
“He can play in the middle or he can go wide. He runs in behind and he can dribble. So I think it will be a great signing for Liverpool and a big miss for Newcastle United.”
If Alexander Isak were an average player, we’d have stopped talking about him ages ago
Obviously, the club is missing him. He was/is world-class, that’s why the whole mess created such a fuss.
With all due respect to Sean Longstaff, if his move to Leeds United had followed a similar storyline, we’d have got over things a lot quicker. There’d be more of a hint of betrayal with him being a Geordie, but in terms of what the team would be losing, moving on wouldn’t be an issue.
It will still take some getting over now that it’s all done and dusted, but Nick Woltemade scoring a winning goal on his debut has gone a long way to repairing the rift. That’s what happens, we move on, we go again.