Newcastle certainly did not want to lose Alexander Isak.
However, having initially held firm, as Isak trained away from the rest of his team-mates, the club ultimately buckled and sold the striker to Liverpool on deadline day.
Lessons have been learned.
After operating without an executive structure a year ago, Newcastle now have a chief executive, David Hopkinson, and a sporting director, Ross Wilson, in place.
The absence of the latter position, in particular, was felt when it came to handling the Isak situation and dealing with agents.
At the height of the Isak saga, head coach Eddie Howe privately pointed to how Newcastle still had “a lot of the same players that we had, who have been successful for a long period of time”.
Deep down, however, he knew Isak’s exit marked the “end of one type of Newcastle team”, as he later put it publicly.
“It was a pivotal time for us because Alex was such an important player,” Howe said at a recent news conference.
“There’s no other player like him in world football and that’s why he went for the transfer fee that he did.”
The manner of Isak’s exit, in itself, offers no excuse for Newcastle’s disappointing league campaign after Howe’s side slipped to 12th place in the table.
Other clubs, such as Bournemouth and Brentford, have rebuilt swiftly and smartly following the loss of key players.
