Eddie Howe's squad is now much stronger than it was at the end of last season
Nick Woltemade meets Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe
Newcastle United new boy Nick Woltemade meets head coach Eddie Howe(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Right, let me nail my colours to the mast and hoist it high. Let me fly the flag of defiance. Newcastle United may have lost the most naturally gifted centre-forward in Europe on transfer deadline day but they are overall better off than we had dared to expect.
Let me state right now that the SQUAD is stronger than last season, even after losing Isak's goals, and that is crucial as we enter Champions League territory.
So goodbye Alexander Isak, football's Incredible Sulk, and hello Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, United's new Little and Large act which is a definite upgrade on the originals Alan Shoulder and Peter Withe.
Remember we also have our right sided centre-back Malick Thiaw, right winger Anthony Elanga, midfielder Jacob Ramsey, and goalkeeper Aaron Ramsey. May I suggest that after initial panic at the slowness of progress United got there in the end. It has turned out to be a nice day.
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Sometimes you have to take the long route to get to where you want to be.
With our late flurry splashing the cash like a good 'un my mind was taken back to the late seventies. Then United paired Shoulder (5ft 5in), the pitman from Blyth Spartans, alongside Withe (6ft 2in) who went on to score the winning goal in a European Cup final and be capped by England. Wissa at 5ft 9in and Woltemade (6ft 6in) are a physical replica but Little and Large Mark 1 operated in the Second Division whereas Mark 2 will be in the Champions League.
Isak tried to do us down and cost us greatly at the start of a new Premier League season, tarnishing the glowing memories of Wembley glory, but to heck with him. Yes I am sickened that Isak's bully boy tactics should win in the end. That he should get what he wants by taking a sledgehammer to decency and the letter of the law blowing a huge hole in football's contracts system.
He is a spoilt child who unfortunately got the toy he wanted because he clenched his fists and jumped up and down in a tantrum.
Still, if he doesn't want to be a Magpie we don't want him. Our two W's, Woltemade and Wissa, have proved they are desperate to play for us so welcome boys. The Geordies want to love you and they will. Just give them a reason. Do your best and we'll take care of the rest.
What would have been, pound for pound, the most eyebrow-raising deal of deadline day was £30m for Will Osula trebling the fee United originally paid. What a piece of business that would have been.
Osula is as raw as an undercooked steak bless him, which was confirmed as he held court during Isak downing tools, so to squeeze that money out of Eintracht Frankfurt would have been something else and readjusted the financial see-saw after paying over the odds for Wissa, £55m after valuing him at £35m because needs must.
Honestly, it was a better quick profit than Lloyd Kelly but after agreeing the move United had second thoughts and pulled the plug presumably so that Osula can cover for Wissa when he goes off to the African Cup of Nations for a month. Eddie Howe is a belt and braces man when it comes to selling players and perhaps his caution is understandable here given how he was left with only one striker for much of last season.
Maybe Osula will be given permission to fly the nest after the African tournament finishes midway through the January transfer window if the profit remains high.
As I've said I honestly believe that once the dust has settled - and it's been a wind storm - then United can take solace in having improved their overall squad. Ramsdale is better than Dubravka, Thiaw an improvement on Lascelles, Ramsey more talented than Longstaff, Wissa an upgrade on Wilson with injury and age concerns, Elanga a full international compared to Murphy. Only Isak is better and therefore technically a loss but then Woltemade is a replica in style - tall, skinny, wonderful close quarter skills, dribbler - and may under Eddie make the progress that the Swede did. Let us hope so.
I bet when the transfer window slammed shut and was firmly bolted against intruders Howe uttered a long sigh of relief. His boyish smiling face had been in serious danger of being replaced by the lined look I see every time I approach the shaving mirror.
The torrid Isak affair and the desperate search for a replacement as well as other outriders had taken its toll. Now he can concentrate on that forgotten commodity: football.
Before someone suggests I am being one-eyed with United doing exactly what Liverpool have done through signing another rebel in Wissa I know. I must say straight away that I also take a negative view of his stance.
However it can be said in his defence that Wissa insists he had an agreement in writing that Brentford would let him go. That is different if it was so because it would mean a two-party agreement. Isak had no such concrete evidence of United reneging on any promise.
With my fan's hat on I welcome Wissa as a very necessary attacking option when no-one else coming in would have been unthinkable and as a quality finisher. Boy have we needed some help.
Agents, of course, have turned out to be the curse of the modern game. Some of them are the true monsters behind player power. Footballers need and deserve professional help but what we have cultivated is a middle man who ruthlessly chases the buck because the biggest reward for them is to get their player a transfer not a new contract at home.
Isak jumps immediately to mind - his advisers have a history of being disruptive - while former centre-forward Troy Deeney blatantly encouraged our deserter to kick up hell to ensure him getting a move just as he did on the advice of his agent.
Deeney publicly told Isak that, rather than go on strike, he should train with the group doing all the physical work but then when the ball comes out 'ruin' play by kicking it away and, if necessary, feign injury. He boasted that his agent told him to do that to force a move from Walsall to Watford and of course he did.
Now there's a crafty lad who obviously thinks he was clever. Well done Troy. I saw you at Newcastle's last home match against Liverpool and I bet Eddie would have loved to have popped in the Press room to thank you for your help and support had he known!