Sky Sports’ incessant ‘Alexander Isak to Arsenal’ coverage hits new low

Mark McAdam: (inner monologue) ‘Oh man, I’d better think of something quick, ah, oh man, I could talk about how it was a beautiful, cushioned touch with Isak’s left foot to set it up perfectly for him to slot it home. I could talk about how its only taken four minutes for Newcastle to turn this game around… Oh man, oh, oh…’ (To camera) Arsenal… (inner monologue: phew, live tv is hard…)

Jests aside, Sky Sports’ reporting (and overtly apparent desperation) to shift Alexander Isak to Arsenal plumbed new depths on Saturday afternoon.

“Quite remarkable, Alexander Isak is the man that so many Arsenal fans want the Gunners to sign, and he’s proving just why,” McAdam said as he reported from St. Mary’s on Newcastle’s second goal.

Once again those subjected to the 3pm blackout in the UK (and those unable to make a quick jaunt to South Africa and back for the game) had to endure another masterclass in Arsenal client journalism from Sky Sport’s Mark McAdam.

In what has gone on to be quite a Twitter/X spat between fellow journalists, the presenter has copped a lot of flak for an ill-judged mention of the Gunners in the description of Alexander Isak’s second goal against the Saints, something which was entirely unwarranted and stinks of an obvious provocation – something which has become more apparent since his doubling down (and blaming live tv) on social media.

Look, I understand that this sort of thing happens up and down the land with every club but usually the club that wants to buy the player has put a bid in – much like we did with Guehi in the summer.

But, what really rankles with the incessant Isak to Arsenal coverage on Sky Sports is that they haven’t even made a bid for United to reject and all the noise around Arsenal is that they won’t in this window.

So, essentially the story boils down to: Arsenal like Isak. Well, who wouldn’t. The lad is scoring for fun, appears to be becoming more robust and injury free (something many scouts worried about when they reported on the Swede) and he has three years left on his United contract; and once we are free of PSR in the summer we will undoubtedly offer him a new contract – as has also been reported over the weekend.

It was a bad look from Mark McAdam at the weekend as he simply didn’t have to invoke Arsenal’s name at all when reporting on Newcastle United vs Southampton, and I look forward, with bated breath, for his next match report on Arsenal when he stare’s dead-eyed into camera and says:

‘What a brilliant goal from Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, the boyhood Newcastle fan, who would surely fancy a crack at the huge project going on on Tyneside…’ 

Maybe I’d better not hold my breath after all.