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Shay Given: ‘Keeping Alexander Isak is the biggest signing Newcastle can make’
Exclusive: Newcastle legend Given has revealed what the club needs to do this summer to stay among Europe’s elite
Newcastle must prioritise keeping hold of Alexander Isak this summer over any signing, says club legend Shay Given.
With a return to the Champions League beckoning, the Magpies are gearing themselves up for a busy summer as they look to ensure their latest stint in Europe’s most prestigious competition is not a fleeting one.
Depth in quality will be required as they enter a jam-packed 2025/26 calendar, with it imperative that involvement in multiple competitions does not leave Eddie Howe’s resources spread too thin.
However, if Newcastle want to prove that they are here to stay among football’s elite, they need to lock down their prized assets beyond the summer months - namely Swedish talisman Isak, who finished the campaign as club top scorer with 27 goals.
“That’s as big of a signing you can make,” Given told The Independent in an exclusive interview, speaking ahead of his punditry work at the inaugural Club World Cup. “If I was in charge of Newcastle, I would be tying him to a new contract, building the team around him and saying that we’re getting players to make you a better player. Whatever it takes to show this is the place to be.
“We won a trophy this season but next season we want even more trophies. This is the start of something big and it’s a big message to keep hold of him as much as it is to sign anyone else, because the other side of the coin is if you lose Isak, what does that say to everyone else? The message that sends out is not the message that anyone wants from a Newcastle point of view.
“You have to keep your best players, especially back in the Champions League now. Isak is one of the top strikers in European football, I really believe that. It’s important that he’s a Newcastle player next season.”
Given spent 12 years at St James’s Park, making 463 appearances for Newcastle during a tenure that included some of the highest and lowest days in the clubs history.
He helped guide the Magpies to back-to-back top four finishes between 2001 and 2003, which would act as the last Champions League football Tyneside would witness for 20 years. Just a few seasons later, they would suffer the ignominy of relegation, with Given leaving the club during the turmoil of that infamous 2008/09 campaign.
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But now, Newcastle appear to be back on their perch. This new generation of players did what Given couldn’t manage in his near-half-century of appearances and ended the club’s 70-year wait for silverware, beating eventual league champions Liverpool to the Carabao Cup in March.
From there, they could have easily settled on such a historic triumph, allowing themselves to get carried away with the euphoria that came with their Wembley win. But they pushed on, battling through an intense five-horse race for top five to grit out Champions League qualification for the second time in three seasons.
This, for Given, was a massive statement of intent, showcasing a winning mentality of a side determined to consolidate their place in the upper echelons of the English and European game.
“After the Carabao Cup, they really had the bit between their teeth,” said Given. “Qualification for the Champions League was the cherry on top of a brilliant seasons.
“Seventy years of domestic hurt, not winning a trophy, is pretty bad. These guys are winners now. You get a taste of winning, you want more of it, don’t you?
“Champions League next season, they got a taste of that two years ago. Some great memories in Milan, Germany and Paris. That’s what the players want, it’s what the fans want, so roll on next season.”
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