Newcastle must regret selling original Wissa

Now that the Alexander Isak crash is over, Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe can work and make progress throughout the 2025/26 campaign.

Although PIF’s intention has always been to keep Swedish international players in the book this summer, Newcastle won last year’s Calaba Cup and qualified for the Champions League with a fifth-place Premier League record, which made him tricky by forcing him to leave St James’ Park.

Fortunately, over the past few months, Hipies has completed with some shrewd trades, and Howe will feel he has a team that is suitable for the challenge and replaces Isak and Callum Wilson with two new strikers.

Newcastle’s central change

Last season, Isak scored 27 goals in all matches, including 23 in the Premier League, leaving him only behind Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

It will never be easy to replace him, but Howe has to settle for Yoane Wissa, who has added £50m from Brentford, the 28-year-old has made 19 strikes in the 2024/25 campaign.

Wissa doesn’t have the depth of technical quality or weapon range like ISAK, but he should provide a consistent outlet in the last third.

With Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade also signed a £69m club record last month, Newcastle has the potential to transform its frontline into something special.

Newcastle signed one of the most exciting young strikers in world football, but the jury has a big hit rate on whether he will score a tough Premier League game – especially after just 17 goals in 2024/25, with only 12 of them in the Bundesliga.

With Isak now disappearing, Howe will likely sell another free-scoring Premier League forward a few years ago.

Newcastle must regret selling original Wissa

Newcastle signed Chris Wood from Burnley in January 2022 for a £25m deal, part of a reshuffle after PIFs poured in and changed Toon’s trajectory.

Like Visa, Leeds United Men was a relatively short-term solution, moving to St. James at the age of 30.

Like Wissa, Wood had proven his Premier League credentials before making the conversion, reaching the Northeast after he reached double-digit league goals in four full top flight campaigns at Turf Moor.

Overall, the 6-foot-3 striker won 49 goals for the Clarets in 144 games, a record that was very similar to Wissa’s 45 goals in 137 league games in West London.

Unfortunately, Wood looked “slightly lost” during his club subsequently, as Pundit Tam McManus said at the time, scoring only five goals in his 39 games.

However, Wood rebounded, and then there were some tricky trees, and last season, Nuno Espirito Santo’s team was eligible for Europe.

His 20-goal return surpassed Wissa and Woltemade’s respective runs, and given his output consistency in the Premier League, Howe may be sadly released his sales prematurely.

The towering amulet resurrected his career on the city ground, but it shows that quality always exists and if he had more time he might go from Tyneside’s power to power.

But the decision to sign Isaac ended his chance to become a black and white superstar.

Wood may be 33 now, but he shows little sign of slowing down, batting himself on the season’s opening day as Forest beat Brentford 3-1.

If he finds his position on Tyneside, the New Zealand native could alleviate the drama of the past few months and then provide clinical access to Howe over the past few weeks, which is barely in terms of success in the last third.