Boy, that escalated quickly. On Monday morning, it was reported that Newcastle United were considering trying to find a loan move for Yoane Wissa and by the evening, reports suggested they were looking for a sale.
Yoane Wissa is one of last summer’s signings that didn’t exactly pan out as we’d have hoped, along with Anthony Elanga and, to a certain extent, Nick Woltemade.
While we expected a period of adjustment with Nick Woltemade, Yoane Wissa was supposed to be Newcastle’s ready-made striker to replace Alexander Isak, but an injury picked up on international duty forced the Magpies into a change of strategy.
Given that Wissa and Woltemade were signed right at the end of the transfer window, after the season had already got underway, they had no pre-season with their new club, and then with Wissa picking up an injury that kept him out of action for four months, he was severely hampered by the time he was fit enough to play.
Newcastle could be willing to take a loss on Yoane Wissa
Unfortunately, the 29-year-old hasn’t really had any opportunity to show what he can do, and now, according to The Athletic, Newcastle are seriously considering cutting their losses and taking a loss to correct their mistake from the summer.
A loan is still a possibility, but it seems as though a sale would be preferred. However, there’s still a good chance that Wissa stays where he is, as they would need to find a willing taker, which may be difficult after this season.
There’s also the added complication of a 25% sell-on clause that Brentford were savvy enough to put in the contract when the deal was completed.
The club has got itself into quite a mess with this one, but it’s worth noting that Wissa was signed when Newcastle didn’t have a CEO or sporting director in place. Now that both of those positions are filled, things are expected to change dramatically, including the correction of last year’s mistakes.
We say keep him for another season
There’s no indication of just how big a hit Newcastle would find acceptable to take on selling Wissa, but given that they massively overpaid for him, with the fee rising to £55 million, it’s going to be a hefty loss. He was probably only really worth £40 million at the absolute maximum last year after his stunning season with Brentford, but now, you can probably take another £10m-£15m off that asking price.
Given that the Magpies are looking to sell stars to fund a rebuild this summer, taking such a hit is less than ideal.
It may be worth just sticking with the DR Congo striker for another year and hoping that a pre-season and a few changes will bring out the best in him next season.