Alexander Isak to Man Utd? Gary Neville is living in a fantasy world (2025)

How the eyes of the Manchester United fans must have lit up when the pre-match tifo at St James’ Park was unfurled to depict Kevin Keegan in all his mid-90s managerial glory on the Gallowgate.

For a club that clings to its recent past like a comfort blanket it must have been a sight for sore eyes – a reminder when the mere presence of red on Tyneside was enough to prompt a bout of the jitters so big that it cost Newcastle United the Premier League title in 1995.

That fear factor evaporated a long, long time ago but you wouldn’t know it from the away end’s songbook about Alan Shearer and past glories. Great days, sure, but a comfort zone from which to escape the reality that 14th in the Premier League table is, if anything, flattering them.

Even Gary Neville, the sage of Sky Sports with an opinion on everything, still gets caught up in it. A couple of weeks ago, on one of the many podcasts he lends his expert voice to, he claimed with a straight face that Alexander Isak’s head would be turned by the prospect of Manchester United showing interest.

Maybe 20 years ago that was the case. But why would he want to swap this version of Newcastle United – still at base camp on a mission to scale English football – with the pale tribute act that is Manchester United 2025?

The days of signing the likes of Isak are gone at Old Trafford and might not be back for a good while. Neville and his ilk talk of the inevitability of Manchester United’s return but the whole thing needs a reboot because they’re simply not operating at the same level as Newcastle at the moment.

Perhaps that’s what Ruben Amorim is here to do, finally extinguish the nostalgia that the club clings to like a comfort blanket.

Because if you forget about the long shadow cast by Sir Alex Ferguson and the Class of ’92, this was actually encouraging in parts from a Manchester United side looking a bit more comfortable in Amorim’s preferred formation.

In the first 15 minutes there were some nice combinations, the engine room looked to have more balance than when Newcastle steamrollered them in December and there was a delicious one-touch counter-attack between Joshua Zirkzee and Bruno Fernandes that looked like exactly what Amorim-ball is meant to be.

The problem for Amorim is the other 60 or so minutes when Newcastle’s high press and athleticism squeezed the life out of them. Noussair Mazraoui’s mistake for Harvey Barnes’s second goal – which put this game to bed – was typical of a team languishing in the Premier League’s lower reaches. The less said about Altay Bayindir’s clearance for Newcastle’s fourth, the better.

Perhaps Amorim does pull a rabbit out of the hat to win the Europa League. Stranger things have happened. But they would be like lambs to the slaughter in the Champions League, just as they were at St James’ Park.