Newcastle United appear to be prioritising a move for one striker above all else in the final days of the summer transfer window.
While Yoane Wissa remains an ‘active’ target, according to Craig Hope, there has been a big push to land Wolves’ Jorgen Strand Larsen this week.
Bids of £50m and £55m failed across Monday and Tuesday, while reports from Sky Sports on Wednesday said that a £60m bid was imminent.
The 6ft 4″ forward’s potential move to St James’ Park may rely on a striker arriving first at Molineux, but reports in Norway suggests things are picking up behind the scenes regarding a likely switch to Newcastle.
TV2 report that Larsen’s agent, Tore Pedersen, has arrived in England and is working away to facilitate a move to Newcastle, with the Norwegian outlet believing there is now an expectation he’ll arrive on Tyneside before Monday’s deadline.
Norway’s national coach Stale Solbakken has also been discussing the transfer saga, explaining why the big striker is now in the “dream situation” over the final days of the summer window:
“I haven’t spoken to Jørgen but this is a dream situation for him. He plays in the Premier League anyway and suits both clubs.
“Newcastle play mostly with one striker and put in a lot of crosses and have wingers with pace. So, he will probably fit well (at Newcastle United).
“But he also fits well at Wolves. They (also) play a type of football that suits him.”
With the Wissa deal dragging on and one striker essential, regardless of what happens to Alexander Isak, let’s hope our third bid is enough to tempt Wolves into a sale.
He has to come, so has Wissa, it’s just a pity our abysmal transfer performance means both clubs have us over a barrel and we’ll pay £20m too much each for both of them.,
davewallace(Quote)
Just need to pay 10M more for both. We will get back much more money from the Champions league. Most important we get 2 willing souls fighting for Newcastle
J(Quote)
Wolves will not sell him! We have wasted too much time on unavailable players I assume we would only put another 60 million bid in if Wolves were open to selling but that doesn’t seem to be the case so what’s going in?
Badger(Quote)
Like we won’t sell Isak. We will of course sell him for when conditions of sale suit.
Bob Hughes(Quote)
This one has the Guehi transfer saga written all over it.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Hate to say it but it’s back to Ashley transfer windows this summer.
They knock back £50m immediately so we think an extra 5m will do it – like wise with Wissa – £30m rejected so we’ll just offer £35m.
Forget Isak for a second. We knew we were releasing Wilson and needed to replace him – but he was a forward who was injured and scored ZERO goals last season – so we knew ALL last season that Isak needed help …. And with less than a week to go we STILL haven’t even brought that player in!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
The whole “agent” thing is getting way out of hand.
Also, Olly, what was the “twist” you mentioned in the headline?
JFA127(Quote)
I’m taking some comfort from the idea that L’pool may also find themselves short a striker as the transfer deadline approaches. Granted they have more than we do already but they can’t go shopping without signalling to Isak’s camp that they’re pulling the plug on his transfer. So much for whispering behind our back and figuring they’d get him on the cheap in a one horse race. And Chelsea have been rubbing their hands think we will have little option but to hand over any Isak fee to buy reject Jackson at £90m. We HAVE to stand firm.
Greggsboy(Quote)
No it’s not.
We waited until qualifying for CL to use that as a carrot for potential new signings. Unfortunately all of our targets have been nabbed by bigger clubs either offering CL or higher wages.
Wilson was offered a contract extention which he declined.
We are offering fair value for the players you have mentioned. Wissa has 12 months left and Larsen has just completed his move to wolves for about 20 million.
You’d be complaining if we offered 100 million for Wissa and 150 for Larsen, knocking us back years with PSR.
We have just been unlucky. Stop whinging.
No it’s not.
We waited until qualifying for CL to use that as a carrot for potential new signings. Unfortunately all of our targets have been nabbed by bigger clubs either offering CL or higher wages.
Wilson was offered a contract extention which he declined.
We are offering fair value for the players you have mentioned. Wissa has 12 months left and Larsen has just completed his move to wolves for about 20 million.
You’d be complaining if we offered 100 million for Wissa and 150 for Larsen, knocking us back years with PSR.
We have just been unlucky. Stop whinging.
Calculator(Quote)
We knew we qualify for CL on the 25th May – but either way were in European comps regardless.
Whether Wilson extended or not, we knew Isak needed better back up.
That was a priority signing before the window opened.
The issue revolves around Mitchell not being good enough & us not replacing him with any urgency.
The signings we’ve made have been decent enough – but you make your own luck by having the right people in place to get the deals done.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Good point about Mitchell. Could well be the root cause of our problems, baling out on Eddie when he needed support.
Let’s hope progress can be made with Strand Larsen, and Wissa too then Isak can get on his merry way for something north of 120m.
Have to chuckle when I keep reading about a striker replacement for Wilson. That’s a smokescreen to keep Isak on hold. Fact is we need a striker before the weekend is out.
As for the rebuffs…..Eddie can take comfort from the fact that Sesko and Mbuemi were outplayed by little ole Grimsby…Well done Grimsby….and Trafford has been virtually dumped by City after just 2 games.
Billwark(Quote)