It’s pretty much been a season of near disasters for Newcastle United. You can go as far back as pre season and the shocking defeat to Celtic. Last minute losses to Arsenal and Liverpool at home, countless injuries, Marseille, Man City in the cup, sunderland, Barcelona and the surrender of 25 points from winning positions. Add to that the shocking drop off in form of our great early season hope, Nick Woltemade. Yoan Wissa, however, might just trump the lot.
I think we all knew that we’d had our pants pulled down when we agreed to pay a reported £55m for a bloke who was about to turn 29 in summer. I’m not sure any of us could have forecast what would come next though.
I have to admit that a few years ago, Wissa was a player that I liked the look of. He was playing second fiddle to Ivan Toney, but on the occasions that I saw Brentford play, he looked dynamic and dangerous. He looked a player with the potential to be the main man at a Premier League club. And he still might be, but this season has made him look anything but.
What we’d probably all hoped for was that quick, dynamic striker that played for Brentford last season. With 20 goals in total, four seasons as a Premier League player and 137 appearances, it appeared that we were getting someone who knew his way around the league. It’s turned out to be an entirely different matter.
So far, Wissa has scored 3 goals and contributed just one assist in 23 appearances. At the time of writing, in 427 minutes of Premier League action he’s managed just the one goal. There’s been little else to redeem him. His contributions have been tepid and it’s already gotten to the stage where he looks a little desperate when he gets on the pitch which is inevitably leading to errors and snatched shots when chances present themselves. In short, he looks lost.
Of course, time will tell whether this year can be put down to the lack of a pre-season (his own doing) and the early injury that ruled Wissa out for so long. But will he even get that time?
For me, Wissa’s signing highlights a lack of scouting depth. The last minute farce of signing an Isak replacement should never have happened. Even before we knew that the rat wanted out, we should have been targeting his successor. It feels like we weren’t. And if we have a look at some of the other new strikers in the league it makes our decision to sign Wissa look all the more desperate and unimaginative.
Brentford had signed Igor Thiago from Club Brugge in 2024, but injury ruled him out for most of last season. However, looking at his stats for this season puts our scouting to shame. So far, Thiago has 21 goals in 40 appearances and has just made his debut for Brazil. He’s 24; not even in his prime, but with enough experience to suggest that he has all the tools to lead the line at a bigger club. He’d been playing in Europe for just over 2 seasons when Brentford bought him. He wasn’t unknown.
In July 2025 Everton signed Thierno Barry from Villareal for £27m. After a shaky start he’s now made 31 appearances and scored 6 goals. Not an incredible record, but he’s only 22 and was signed at half the price of Wissa. He’s also a French Under 21 international who’d been playing regularly in Europe since 2022. Would his raw talent and potential have been a better bet last year when we’d committed so much money already to signing Nick Woltemade?
Even in the dark place down the road they have a summer signing who has been a success. Brian Brobbey signed from Ajax having scored 35 goals in 92 appearances. Quick and powerful, his potential looks huge and even though he’s not exactly lit up the goalscoring charts, he looks to be another player who would have fit right into our team.
To be clear, I’m not saying any of the above would have been the answer to all of our problems. But it’s interesting to look and see that all of them have had a greater impact than our £55m man.
Would Eddie Howe have been able to mould and nurture any of this potential into a better option than Wissa? I guess we’ll never know. However, his work with other players in our squad would suggest so. Or would an alternative have went the same way as Wissa? After all, Eddie certainly hasn’t worked any magic there and as we approach the end of the season Wissa is looking more and more like a forgotten man.
In then end, we’ll never know if anyone else would have worked out better. But for me, Wissa’s signing and the fall out from what was a farcical summer window shows that this is an area where we have to do better.
With another even more crucial window approaching and the need for more striking options well documented it’s vitally important that Ross Wilson gets it right. And if he’s still Newcastle’s number 9 next season, then Yoanne Wissa has to start the season in top form.
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