Sky Sports News reporter Keith Downie has revealed the nail-biting wait Newcastle faced in sealing the Yoane Wissa deal after bungled paperwork almost scuppered the deal – while Brentford’s director of football has spoken out on the “not ideal” saga that saw the Congolese star secure his move to St James’ Park.
Newcastle were one of the more active sides in the latter days of the window as they brought in strikers Nick Woltemade for a club-record £69m (€79m, $93m) and Wissa for £55m (€63.3m, $73.7m) – both deals offset by the record-breaking exit of Alexander Isak to Liverpool for £125m (€144m, $167.5m) late on deadline day.
Incredibly, Newcastle could have missed out on the signing of Wissa from Brentford, after the 118-goal frontman got his wish and was allowed to travel north to undergo a medical with Eddie Howe’s side.
And with all the terms in place over a deal, Newcastle suffered a heart-stopping moment when they realised the forward had missed out on signing one detail of his contract, which could have rendered his move illegitimate and with disaster ultimately averted with just 30 seconds remaining.
Explaining the tension-fuelled moment, Downie explained on X: ‘Yoane Wissa’s Deadline Day move to Newcastle was completed with under 30 seconds to spare!
‘Wissa had failed to sign one of the forms and it was left to one of his representatives to sprint through Newcastle’s training ground to find the striker and get him to hurriedly sign the document with a couple of minutes of the deal sheet extension period left.
‘Eventually, the £55m signing was ratified at 8.59pm — two hours after the initial 7pm deadline.
‘Wissa had driven up to Newcastle from London through the night on Sunday to be in position to undergo a medical and formalise his transfer.
‘And the travelling doesn’t stop now for the striker – he’s now en route to join up with his DR Congo international teammates ahead of their World Cup qualifier away to South Sudan on Friday.’
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Wissa miss would have hurt Newcastle as Brentford chief has his say
Thankfully, Newcastle did manage to get the deal over the line in time, and missing out on his signing is something Howe and Co. do not have to dwell upon.
But as shown by Saturday’s relatively toothless draw at Leeds, the Magpies will need plenty of attacking options to ensure they are in with a fighting chance of a top-four finish once again.
Indeed, with Woltemade and Wissa now on board, Howe has two very different options to pick from – and it may be that the Toon boss finds a way to play both at the same time, with the latter also comfortable operating off the left wing. With another new boy, Anthony Elanga, also playing on the right, Newcastle can now feasibly field a new-look and highly speedy attack.
In the meantime, Brentford’s director of football Phil Giles lamented how the Wissa saga played out in public and admits the saga was “not ideal” for the Bees, given the star players they have also lost this summer, including Bryan Mbeumo, Mark Flekken and Christian Norgaard.
“It’s been an interesting last few days and in fact, an interesting last few weeks,” Giles told Brentford’s official website. “The big story is selling Yoane Wissa. He was a fantastic player for us, started off playing wide and evolved to take on the No. 9 position and had a brilliant season last year.
“He was a really good, infectious character who was positive around the players and the fans. I personally liked him a lot as well, so there’s nothing but positive things to say about his performances on the pitch for us.
“Transfers are always complicated. There’s always a little bit of emotion, friction and dialogue. That normally stays in-house, but obviously this one spilt out. It’s not the only one this summer that has spilt out a little bit more into the public domain, which is, from my point of view, not ideal.
“You have got to take the emotions out of it and got to ultimately make the decisions for the club. Every decision I make or we make collectively during a transfer window will strip all of the emotion out of it and focus purely on what is the right decision in this moment in time for the club overall.
“To some extent, it’s been no more difficult than many other transfer windows personally.
“It may have just slipped out publicly a little bit more this time than normal, so people got a bit more insight into how things tend to play out.”
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