Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson (Image: Owen Humphreys)
IF Alexander Isak completes his recovery from a groin injury ahead of Newcastle United’s final game of the season against Everton at the weekend, Sunday’s outing at Arsenal will almost certainly have been Callum Wilson’s final start of the campaign.
In such a scenario, it should also turn out to have been the final start of Wilson’s Newcastle career. The 33-year-old has been a magnificent servant since joining the Magpies more than four-and-a-half years ago, with his 49 goals from 127 appearances making him one of the club’s most successful strikers of the Premier League era.
Sentiment is no reason to be handing out new contracts though, and for all that Eddie Howe might talk glowingly of Wilson’s enduring qualities and warn of the potential difficulty of replacing him if he was to leave this summer, the evidence increasingly suggests otherwise.
Wilson is due to become a free agent next month, and for all that Howe might be pushing for the offer of a new deal, Paul Mitchell, in his role as sporting director, needs to stand firm. If Newcastle are to take the next step and become Champions League regulars, with realistic ambitions of mounting a viable challenge for the Premier League title, they need to become much better at moving players on. Keeping an ageing forward, whose injury issues have become increasingly problematic in the last couple of years, is not exactly a great way to start.
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Watching Wilson fail to land a blow on the Arsenal defence at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon was like watching a former musical great trying to belt out their greatest hits on a farewell tour. The songs are still there, they’re just not quite as good as they used to be. Wilson’s footballing mind and competitive instincts remain intact, it’s just that his body isn’t quite capable of doing what he needs it to anymore.
The sharpness was gone at the weekend, and while some of that can be attributed to Wilson’s lack of match action this season – Sunday’s outing at the Emirates was only his second league start of the campaign – it’s impossible to shake off the feeling that time has finally caught up with a forward who has always relied on a rapid burst of pace to get him away from opposition defenders.
Wilson’s effort and attitude couldn’t be faulted as he tangled with William Saliba and Jakub Kiwior, but it was hardly a coincidence that while Newcastle carved out a host of chances in the opening quarter of the game, none of them fell his way. Then, when the Magpies needed someone to stretch the Arsenal defence and make runs behind the opposition back four in the second half, Wilson was even more ineffectual.
That’s not his fault, it’s just that time, and a succession of muscular injuries, have blunted the attributes that were so integral to his attacking threat. He looks laboured now, whereas previously opponents were terrified of getting too close to him because, in a split-second, he was capable of spinning away from them.
Howe still values Wilson’s reliability and experience, but assuming Isak remains on the books next season, there will surely be better back-up options to the Swede. Had Isak been absent for a prolonged spell during the current campaign, Will Osula’s inexperience, and Howe’s ongoing reluctance to select the 21-year-old, means Newcastle would have been reliant on Wilson for their goals. Would they have been one win away from returning to the Champions League if such a scenario had played out?
It feels unlikely, so rather than extending Wilson’s stay at St James’, the time has come to look elsewhere. Liam Delap appears to be reluctant to sign for Newcastle knowing that, if Isak remains fit, he will be playing second fiddle. The same is almost certainly true of Matheus Cunha. But the fact that either player would be a significant upgrade on Wilson highlights the potential for improvement that is out there.
Would Wilson remain in the Premier League? It’s possible. Saudi Arabia or the MLS have always felt like potential destinations, but Leeds United have been linked, so perhaps Wilson will turn out to be the next Chris Wood, resurgent after leaving Tyneside. That’s still no reason to keep him.
Better instead to remember the good days in black-and-white. The goal at West Ham on his Newcastle debut. The 18 league goals in the 2022-23 season, when his performances were so integral to the Magpies qualifying for the Champions League. The seven goals in ten appearances at the start of the following campaign, when for probably the only time, Howe paired him with Isak on a regular basis.
There have been difficult moments along the way, when Wilson’s hamstrings have let him down, but it is surely impossible to dispute that the £20m it took to sign him from Bournemouth was money well spent. Wilson has more than repaid that sum. But it would now be best for everyone if the Newcastle chapter of his career was closed.