Eddie Howe explains £124m Newcastle United transfer decision - 'very different'
Newcastle United have their £124m strike force ready to attack the second-half of the season.
Newcastle United have both their centre forwards fit and firing as they head into the second half of the season.
After losing Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson in the summer, Newcastle signed Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa for a combined total of £124million but they hadn’t felt the benefit of having the pair - until now.
Just a week after joining from Brentford for £55m, Wissa picked up a knee injury on international duty with DR Congo and had to wait three months before making his debut in early December.
That saw Woltemade thrown in at the deep end following his £69m club-record move from Stuttgart, and the German has made a productive start to his Tyneside career with nine goals.
Now Wissa, who scored 19 Premier League goals last season, is beginning to make an impact, having scored on both his full debuts in the Carabao Cup and in the Premier League.
The 29-year-old was preferred ahead of Woltemade away to Burnley on Tuesday evening and scored the second goal in the 3-1 victory at Turf Moor.
Newcastle United finally seeing benefits of £124m strike force
On his two strikers, Howe said: “That was the thinking behind signing the two players that we did because they're very different.
“Yoane is your traditional number nine. He is a monster running behind, very good sense of scoring goals, he's in the right place at the right time highlighted by his goal tonight. It might look like a simple goal but he has to do all the right things to get into that position.
“And you mentioned the other chances that he had to score, I thought it was trademark number nine centre forward play.
“I thought he worked really hard, he led the line superbly. He's actually a good physical outlet for us as well, he's very good in the air, which is great to see. So a lot of facets to his game were really strong today.
“But most of all, I think he's highly motivated to do well, he's highly motivated to perform well for this team. He's a passionate person and all those qualities we need and Nick's done really well too.
“So it's great to have two goal scorers now that can hopefully stay fit and help us.”
Newcastle United eyeing strong second half of the campaign
The year 2025 will go down as a historic one for Newcastle after ending their 56-year trophy drought and qualifying for the Champions League, but they head into 2026 needing to improve their Premier League form as they currently sit 10th in the table, four points below the top five.
Howe said: “I think it starts with a year that could be anything we want it to be. We're in a great position really. There's been a lot of negative feeling around us.
“We're in the Carabao Cup semi-final and we're still competing in the Champions League. We're not too far away in the Premier League, although our form has been inconsistent from a good position.
“Again, I'd prefer to be positive than negative whilst still being realistic that we know we're not at our best level. We've got things to improve and we'll endeavour to do that.
“I think when you look at our injury list, eight players out, nine players out injured, especially to our back line, I think the lads have done really, really well. The ones that have played and been available for us to see us through this really difficult period.”