Double delight for rampant Liverpool with Isak and Guehi deadline day swoop among late deals

Liverpool’s British-record capture of Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak brought an end to a transfer saga that had dragged on for far too long, as the headline signing of a dramatic deadline day when a number of puzzle pieces fell into place for English Premier League sides.

The Swedish forward completed his medical at the Premier League champions on Monday afternoon, after the conclusion of a deal worth about £125m (about R2.92 billion), according to Sky Sports.

The lanky sharpshooter divided opinion among football fans, and incurred the wrath of supporters of the Magpies, after insisting he would never play for the club again amid claims of broken promises. He was banished from the Newcastle first-team squad as he forced through a move away.

Liverpool had failed with an opening £110m (R2.6bn) bid and there were concerns Isak would be left in limbo as the last day of the summer transfer window dawned in England. When news of the improved Liverpool offer was reported by the likes of The Athletic and The Telegraph – eclipsing the British record of £115m (R2.74bn) that Chelsea paid Brighton for Moises Caicedo in 2023 – it was soon followed by a flurry of other transfer activity.

There was further deadline-day joy for Reds fans, with the announcement that Crystal Palace and England central defender Marc Guehi, another long-term target, was about to be confirmed as a Liverpool player in a bargain £35m (R835m) deal. The transfer may have been more crucial than Isak’s, given the paucity of central defensive options in the red half of Merseyside.

Newcastle’s late signing of forward Yoane Wissa from Brentford for £55m (R1.31bn), after he had also agitated for a move in similarly petulant fashion to Isak, seems to have cleared the way for last season’s second-highest scorer to leave the Magpies. The earlier club-record signing of Stuttgart striker Nick Woltamade had also greased the wheels.

Suddenly, the view out of the transfer window does not look too bad for Newcastle fans, but it looks even better for Kopites. The Isak deal was set to take the Anfield giants’ summer spending spree to over £450m (R10.7bn), and that was before the addition of Guehi.

An unexpected piece of news was the departure of exciting Liverpool midfield talent Harvey Elliott on loan to Aston Villa with an obligation to buy, reportedly confirmed by transfer guru Fabrizio Romano. He had fallen further down the Liverpool pecking order after the arrival of Florian Wirtz earlier in the transfer window.

Chelsea, meanwhile, secured Brighton winger Facundo Buonanotte on a loan deal. The Blues were looking to fill the void in their attack after the injury to Cole Palmer.

Bayern secured striker Nicolas Jackson on a loan deal with an obligation to buy. The injury to Liam Delap threatened to derail that deal but the Stamford Bridge outfit felt they had enough attacking firepower to mount a serious title challenge without the Senegalese marksman.

Manchester United were also active in the closing stages of the transfer window in an effort to clear the dead wood clogging Ruben Amorim’s system. There were loan and permanent deals announced for attacking trio Rasmus Højlund, Jadon Sancho and Antony.

Antony has permanently transferred to Real Betis for a fee of around £21.6m (R515m), Sancho has joined Aston Villa on loan, and Højlund is set to join Napoli on a loan deal that may include an option for a permanent transfer, according to reports.

The one deal most Red Devils fans were hoping for, however, was the potential addition of Villa goalkeeper Emi Martínez, after below-par recent performances by André Onana and Altay Bayındır. Royal Antwerp’s 23-year-old shot-stopper, Senne Lammens, was eventually signed on deadline day.

Manchester City seemed to have had little trouble attracting world-class goalkeeping talent with PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma on the brink of joining Pep Guardiola’s side with the clock ticking, following Ederson’s £12m (R286m) move to Fenerbahçe in Türkiye.