With five goals in a week, Alexander Isak has passed another relatively significant milestone. When he signed from Real Sociedad in August 2022, he did so with one really impressive season of scoring to his name. He left Spain with 44 goals for his old club.

After two-and-a-half years at St James' Park, Isak now has more for Newcastle than he managed at La Real. Considering he has played almost 40 games fewer, it is a remarkable record.

Over the same period he also has more assists at Newcastle already. His league record within that is even more pronounced. 43 Premier League goals in 69 matches (with eight assists) compared to 33 in 105 in La Liga.

The numbers really do speak for themselves, then, so it is no surprise that for almost every window since a £63million transfer was completed by Newcastle, there has been a crowd of interested clubs waiting and hoping to maybe one day get Isak for themselves. On Monday night away to Manchester United, the quality on show up front was stark.

Isak, as he has done throughout much of his career in the northeast, was a cut above the other strikers. He now has more goals for the club than Papiss Cisse, Ayoze Perez, and Craig Bellamy despite making at least 30 appearances less. He has matched Callum Wilson with over 20 games to spare. He showed Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee up, good and proper.

This really is a special player on show and Isak has totally vindicated the spend from Newcastle which, at the time, was widely questioned. After all, his best scoring season before moving was 17 in 34 in La Liga as a player in his early 20s. That was followed up by a disappointing six the year after. It was good but not unignorable or massively warranting the fee.

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Isak had shown his promise with Willem II in the Eredivisie and was extremely well thought of, but for Newcastle it was still a different type of deal. It now looks to be one of the best pieces of business in recent memory. Even for the big price paid, Newcastle know that Isak is worth considerably more.

Jamie Carragher puts the figure at £150million, saying he would pay to have Isak at Liverpool. Noises around the player over the summer and last winter were also well in advance of £100million. Either way, just the fact he is being linked with this sort of exit is telling in itself.

For all the latest talk, he remains grounded. "No, it doesn't really faze me too much," he told Sky Sports of the impact of speculation. "I think that's more for you guys and for fans to talk about.

"I'm in the middle of the season and I think it's going really well for me and the team, so, you know, all my focus is here and I'm really happy with how things are going. My focus is on the pitch."

For Newcastle that is only a good thing. Isak has now scored in six straight games in the Premier League. He has assisted in two of those as well. The wider individual run back to the start of September is 11 in 15 with three assists. Only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah have more than him in the league this season, and he is the top scorer to have not netted from a penalty, as well.

The rise of Isak has not just come in the past few months, either. His general Premier League output and performance levels have been strong ever since moving to Newcastle, and that is reflected in his value.

According to Transfermarkt - a crowd-sourced data site with predicted estimates of player worth - Isak is only now ready to bring in the money that was paid for him. General football narratives suggest 12 months ago the same was very much true.

It is Isak's pronounced increase in value that says more. At 25, Isak is yet to hit his peak age and is still on the up. For example, when Newcastle signed him, Transfermarkt had the value at less than £45million. That may have been a more accurate reflection if his ability for then, but it doesn't show the quality and rate of improvement.

Just eight months later, Isak was deemed to be worth almost £60million. Ever since then, he has continued to trend upwards again. Although Transfermarkt does not have an updated value for Isak since May this year - which therefore doesn't take into his current form - CIES Football Observatory does.

They rank Isak at up to £75million, a figure only set to keep on heading up, but still only half of Carragher's enormous £150million valuation. For Newcastle, this all says plenty for Isak and their trust in him.

They didn't need justifying in the first place, and in some sense would certainly prefer if Isak was out of the gossip sections this month simply due to unwanted attention, but after such an outlay, this sort of return and standing is a massive win.