By now, it is no secret that Swedish and Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak has the eye of not only Liverpool Football Club, but several top sides. The question arises in how this story will unfold.
While the Reds have been sensationally efficient to secure the signings of Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez, this saga is already dragging and it has barely begun.
While most of us would be over the moon excited to see Isak holding up a Liverpool shirt, that is by no means a lock to happen. That's what brings us here today, to comb through the three most likely outcomes and why they might transpire that way.
Let's examine the three most likely outcomes of Liverpool's Isak pursuit.
1. The Status Quo
As much as we all would love to see Isak make the move to Anfield, it is still on the lower end of likely outcomes.
That is not to say it can't or won't happen, especially if recent reports of the player telling the club he wants to leave are true, but at the end of the day Newcastle are still in a strong leverage spot.
They won a trophy, beating the Reds, and finished fifth so will have European football on the docket as well for next season once again. Most importantly of all though, is he still has three years left on his deal that he signed in 2022.
The Magpies have no incentive to rush to a sale at this present time and have made it clear they prefer to keep their star forward.
This is the reason a huge £150 million fee is being thrown about as it will take the most impressive offer we have seen in English history to get a deal done.
2. Liverpool breaks the bank again
This is the sexy and exciting outcome a lot of us are looking to have happen. With the purse strings seemingly ripped away by FSG this summer, why can't we dream?
Liverpool were swift and decisive in their pursuit of Wirtz and pried him from right under the noses of Bayern Munich and Manchester City, with the latter citing the cost of everything as their reason to get out.
Arne Slot and Richard Hughes have identified players they deem will take the club into the next era and are operating under the idea of they will get that player at the end of the day.
Isak is seen as the crown jewel of this summer bonanza and if they have to break their own monthlong transfer fee record to do it, they just might.
As I mentioned above, Newcastle are in a strong negotiating spot and it's going to take a gargantuan offer to get them to the table, let alone a deal across the line.
With that in mind, this current form of FSG and Richard Hughes have a ruthlessness about their work that gives the perception they will do what they need to do, and breaking the bank to secure one of the best forwards in Europe could be just that.
3. Isak signs, but not for record money
This is obviously a best case scenario for Liverpool and not Newcastle. In this scenario, the League Cup winners would not only lose their talismanic striker, but they would do so at a reduced cost.
A lot of this outcome hinges on how much pressure Isak puts on the ownership group to move him this summer despite his three remaining years on the books.
As I've mentioned, he spearheaded them to silverware and Champions League football in recent years. If he feels he has peaked at Newcastle, now would be the time to join the reigning Premier League champions.
This is not to say it would be a cheap deal to make this happen. We would still be looking at something in the £85-£110 million range with a plethora of add-ons surely being thrown in.
While that would be a tidy profit for his current club, Isak would still be joining the Reds as one of the faces of the new era at Anfield. Liverpool would love to live in this area for a possible deal and dropping in some performance clauses would be more than alright.
This would take all three parties working together to give us a rare "win-win-win" moment in the transfer window.