Newcastle United need strikers and quickly.
Saturday’s display at Aston Villa was a positive one, as we looked the better side throughout and created a few clear chances, but we were left regretting the absence of Alexander Isak as we came away wondering if it was two points dropped.
With Malick Thiaw and Jacob Ramsey through the door last week, it’s clear that our attention will turn to strikers, with two required if we’re to replace Callum Wilson and sanction an exit for the disrespectful Isak.
Yoane Wissa is the man we want to replace Wilson and has been for weeks, with a move for the Brentford striker in the pipeline and tipped to accelerate now the Bees have landed Dango Ouattara.
However, there has been a worrying update from talkSPORT’s Alex Crook and Ben Jacobs this morning, who report that his proposed move to Newcastle is far from done yet.
They claim that Brentford view Ouattara as their Mbeumo replacement, so won’t allow Wissa to leave just yet unless Newcastle up their bid to a whopping £60m.
It’s believed Newcastle will not pay over £40m for Wissa, based on his age – he turns 29 next month – and contract situation.
It’s a mess and, if true, will leave Newcastle with a big decision to make. The player clearly wants the move and it was claimed last week that this deal would now get done following Ouattara’s arrival.
But it seems Brentford won’t make it easy, with the Bees potentially reacting to our desperation after Saturday’s blank, along with their struggles in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
Games. They just putting it out there saying ‘Come get him but bring your wallet.’
He’ll be ours soon enough.
Geordie Jones(Quote)
Brentford know we need Wissa and they know he wants to come – BUT the lad has gone about it like a prat. Not quite as bad as Isak, but a prat all the same.
I expect they will sell him and it will be for around the £40m we are willing to pay – but Brentford owe us and Wissa no favours.
I can see Brentford punishing Wissa by dragging this out to the last day of the season – leaving us without a forward in the meantime – potentially dropping points – punishing us at the same time 🤷🏼♂️.
Sharpy17(Quote)
We have put ourselves in a right predicament!
Howe has to take some of the blame here because this goes back to getting rid of Chris Wood and not replacing him.
Wood who was nearly always available was thrown out of the club in favour of Callum Wilson who barely kicked a ball through injury!
The same player has left at the end of his contract leaving us needing two strikers in a UCL campaign season.
Meantime Chris Wood is one of the best strikers in the league who we could do with right now opening his account with two goals yesterday!
Football is like a game of chess looking a few moves ahead which hasn’t been done here.
X.Y,WHY,MAN.(Quote)
Craig hood reported that it was a deal that was going to be done this week .. depends which story you believev?
Mike(Quote)
Craig hope 😵💫
Mike(Quote)
I have no doubt we’ll sign him and, equally, that we won’t pay the outrageous sum mentioned – they clearly think we are desperate enough to pay twice what he’s worth in order to get him in time for the Liverpool match. As I predicted last week, he will come to us, at our evaluation, after we’ve started the first 2 matches without a striker. Starting 2 tough matches without a striker is criminal but that’s the position our c/f has placed us in. I would certainly give up the point (singular, note)at home to Liverpool rather than pay a fantastic £20m or £30m over the odds.
We got one point out of these two fixtures last season, and have that one point already (yes, it obviously would have been three but……) so, rubbish as it is, that’s our way forward as I saw it earlier and do still now.
davewallace(Quote)
Brentford fan here – our DofF’s stance on Wissa shows that we will not be taken for a ride by one of the so called bigger clubs as we have been in the past. Newcastles original offer of £25m was derogatory and insulting for a player who was among the top scorers in the PL last year. Wissa has shown himself to be greedy and mercenary by the way in which he has behaved and more importantly disrespectful to the club that stood by him after an acid attack immediately prior to him signing which could have ended his career. I think Newcastle will sign him but at a fee that is nearer to Brentford’s valuation.
Brighton Bee(Quote)
It’s mad how similar this situation is to the Isak situation, and it’s concerning that we are seeking to replace one petulant player with another.
Couple of differences between the situations for me though. You say £26m is derisory, and perhaps it is, but I think it’s linked to the rumours of a gentleman’s agreement that Brentford agreed that this was his unofficial “release” amount. No one was leaking to the press that Newcastle were going to bid for £36m and then turned up with an offer £26m.
Also I would suggest that as a buying club Newcastle have not acted in bad faith priming transfer speculation before official contact between the two clubs. We can’t prove it of course so it’s all speculation but it seems that Liverpool have used Isak’s agent and/or Liverpool leaning journalists to promote the idea of Isak coming to Liverpool long before any official bid was made. What we used to call tapping up but I suspect that because it’s all been done through agents they can claim they had nothing to do with it.
Johnny Mac(Quote)
Seems like a revision of history, when we sold Chris Wood the consensus seemed to be we had done good business by avoiding relegation and selling him on recouping some of our outlay that was done in desperation.
Then Callum Wilson got injured after Chris Wood was sold.
On top of that I believe Wood had 2 goals to his name and one of those was a penalty. Loads of people were saying how he just wasn’t good enough and we had to move on to better quality players. Now he’s banging them in for Forest who are setup to use his attributes better he’s suddenly become a world beater that we were foolish to let go of.
Johnny Mac(Quote)
He’s doing good at Forest because they play to his strengths, a lot of people here saw he was a square peg in a round hole with the way we play not that he was no good.
I wouldn’t say we were foolish he just didn’t fit with How we were playing and the direction we were headed, stick him in our team now and it’ll be the same as it was then.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Just to set the record straight once and for all:
All Bees supporters believe there was no agreement with Wissa to sell him for £25m
He still has a year + 1 ie two years left on his contract
The figure I would suggest came from his agent to force a move
Brentford have been very straight – if a club offers what they believe Wissa is worth then he can go but not for the cheap money that Newcastle offered.
Brentford’s DofF and Owner are not stupid, they know the real value of their players
They have proved in the past that they are straight to deal with – unlike some others
Most Bees supporters don’t want Wissa back in the team but they all believe that he cannot be sold on the cheap.
Personally on his behaviour alone, I’d let him rot for a year in the B team
It’s not that long ago that we were in Div 1 & 2 and experience has shown that their transfer knowledge and abilities have grown
Brighton Bee(Quote)
turning 29 next month, no one will pay more than 40 Mil for him.
J(Quote)