Now that the Alexander Isak debacle is over, Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe can get to work and make headway throughout the 2025/26 campaign.
While PIF’s intent was always to keep the Sweden international on the books this summer, Newcastle, having won last year’s Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League with a fifth-place Premier League finish, his obstinacy in forcing his way out of St. James’ Park made it a tricky situation to circumvent.
Luckily, the Magpies have pulled through with some shrewd dealings over the past couple of months, and Howe will feel that he has a squad fit to challenge, having replaced Isak and Callum Wilson with two new strikers.
Newcastle's centre-forward changes
Isak scored 27 goals across all competitions last season, including 23 in the Premier League, putting him behind only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
Replacing him was never going to be an easy task, but Howe must be content with the £50m addition of Yoane Wissa from Brentford, with the 28-year-old having posted 19 strikes across the 2024/25 campaign.
Wissa doesn’t have the depth of technical quality or range of weapons as Isak, but he should provide a consistent outlet in the final third.
And with Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade having also signed in a club-record £69m deal last month, Newcastle have the potential to refashion their frontline into something special.
Newcastle have signed one of the most exciting young forwards in world football, but the jury is very much out as to whether he will hit the ground running in the Premier League – not least after netting just 17 goals in 2024/25, only 12 of which came in the Bundesliga.
With Isak now gone, Howe may well rue the sale of another free-scoring Premier League forward a few years ago.
Newcastle must regret selling the original Wissa
Newcastle signed Chris Wood from Burnley in a £25m deal in January 2022, part of a shake-up after PIF swooped in and changed the Toon’s trajectory.
Where Are They Now
Like Wissa, the one-time Leeds United man was a relative short-term solution, having moved to St James’ at the age of 30.
Like Wissa too, Wood had more than proven his Premier League credentials prior to making the switch, arriving in the North East after reaching double figures for league goals in each of his four full top-flight campaigns at Turf Moor.
In all, the 6 foot 3 striker netted 49 goals in 144 games for the Clarets in the top tier, a remarkably similar record to Wissa’s own return of 45 goals in 137 league games back in west London.
Unfortunately, Wood subsequently looked “a bit lost” during his time at the club, as pundit Tam McManus remarked at the time, only scoring five goals across his 39 appearances.
However, Wood has bounced back and then some with the Tricky Trees, sensational last season as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side qualified for Europe.
His 20-goal return surpassed both Wissa and Woltemade’s respective hauls, and given the consistency of his output in the Premier League, Howe may well regret having issued his sale so prematurely.
25/26 (NFFC)
3
2 (0)
24/25 (NFFC)
36
20 (3)
23/24 (NFFC)
31
14 (1)
22/23 (NFFC)
7
1 (0)
21/22 (NUFC)
18
2 (0)
20/21 (NUFC
17
2 (0)
The towering talisman resurrected his career at the City Ground, but it goes to show that the quality was always there, and that he might have gone from strength to strength on Tyneside had he been given more time.
But the decision to sign Isak ended his chances of becoming a superstar in black and white.
Wood might be 33 now, but he’s showing little sign of slowing down, having bagged himself a brace on the opening day of the season as Forest beat Brentford 3-1.
Had he found his footing on Tyneside, the New Zealand native might have eased the drama of the past few months and then some, providing Howe’s side with a clinical outlet over these past few weeks, which have yielded little in terms of success in the final third.
As painful as Isak: Howe must regret selling "phenomenal" Newcastle talent
This former Newcastle star could have been a superstar in Eddie Howe’s system.
ByAngus Sinclair