I’m just going to put this out there…I love Nick Woltemade.
As a fully-fledged member of the Woltemessi Fan Club, I am sick of hearing every idiot who doesn’t have a clue about football and/or an agenda of disliking Newcastle United (Adrian Durham and Gabby Agbonlahor to name just a couple) spouting pointless criticism towards our 6’ 6” maestro.
I’m not going to get into what has been said, other than to say it is ridiculous to suggest that Big Nick is a flop, or a poor signing, at this stage of his Newcastle career.
Admittedly the big lad is going through a tough time of things at the minute with only one goal since the turn of the year, but he is playing in a team that is consistently inconsistent.
Whilst there is no doubt that his confidence appears to be at rock bottom, he is still contributing with goal involvements (THAT through ball to Murphy in the home leg against Qarabag deserved to be assist of the season if Murph had only found the target).
But let me put some perspective on the situation (I know nobody likes perspective; they just want to bang the drum in the here and now, but humour me).
After a summer of considerable disruption and reported near misses in the transfer market, Newcastle paid a transfer record breaking sum of around £65m (plus £4.4m in potential future add-ons) for Nick Woltemade, the day before the window slammed shut.
As a result of this late transaction, Woltemade didn’t get a pre-season to get to know his new team-mates and to learn the system that Eddie Howe likes to deploy.
Eddie Howe didn’t get the opportunity to look at how his new signing could fit into the team, whether that be moulding Nick into a player to fit into the existing, tried and tested system, or deploying a new system to accommodate the undoubted talents of our new star. In fact, the first thing Nick did on arrival was jet off again to play for Germany in the international break, the same international break that saw our other shiny new striker, Yoane Wissa, knack his knee and spend the next few months injured.
So, Nick Woltemade is thrown in to make his debut against Wolves, promptly scoring a header to seal the three points. It’s no secret that players signed by Howe without the benefit of a preseason have typically taken a while to find their feet (Bruno was on the bench for the first month or so before he got up to speed and Gordon struggled after signing the following January) but Nick hit the ground running, hitting nine goals in all competitions by Christmas despite not having the luxury of another striker to take on some of the load.
Yes, there were signs that things didn’t quite fit as neatly with the system, especially away from home, but overall a solid start for a young man joining a new club, in a new league, a new country and (due to our punishing schedule) not having the benefit of a free week to work on positioning and relationships with team-mates.
As I mentioned above, it has been a tough couple of months with only the late goal at Villa in the cup bringing our new striker to 10 goals so far.
And that brings me to the point of my ravings – in 2022, Newcastle broke their transfer record to bring in Alexander Isak late in the window. Isak was thrown into the first match he was available and scored the opener at Anfield (incidentally the same number of league goals he has scored at Anfield for his new club….).
By this stage of that season, Isak had three goals. He had missed a good few games due to injury but let that sit there a moment. Three goals by the start of March 2023. He would go on to score a further seven that season to give him a grand total of 10. The same number Nick has at the time of writing.
So, in his first season Isak scored 10 goals, whilst playing in a system that was built around him and as part of a team that was playing well above expectations.
Nick Woltemade on the other hand has scored 10 goals in a system that was built around a now departed player and in a team that is sometimes unplayable (1st leg Qarabag and Everton away) and occasionally awful (West Ham and Brentford away). Oh, and going back to goal involvements, Woltemade has contributed several assists compared to Isak’s 0 assists in 2022-23, showing the unselfish side to his game.
On top of all that, there are still at least 13 games left in the season, with potentially more to come, if we keep our cup form up.
I am not saying that Nick Woltemade is a better striker than Alexander Isak, but he has proven that he has ability, he has an eye for goal (even if it is a little off at the minute) and he has the heart and the effort that we Newcastle fans demand. And given time he can write his name into the history of our club.
But he needs our help to get there, as do the whole Newcastle United team. Now is not the time for jumping on the bandwagon and throwing mud, now is the time for circling the wagons and getting behind Nick and the team.
WOLTEMADE WOLTEMADE OLE OLE OLE!