After not having a striker available for selection, Eddie Howe now has two quality options to choose from
Sean McCormick is a football writer covering Newcastle United for ChronicleLive. After starting his career covering North East sport, he has had a spell working as an editor on the Manchester Evening News. He also writes about darts and boxing. He joined us in 2016.
Newcastle United's Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade
Newcastle United's Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade
It is a dilemma that everyone associated with Newcastle United has been crying out for this season.
Having had no obvious recognised centre-forward to start in any of their three games so far this term, Newcastle now have £120million worth of talent to choose from.
So the question for Eddie Howe is now clear. Who starts up front vs Wolves on Saturday: Nick Woltemade or Yoane Wissa?
Wissa arrived on deadline day in a £55million deal from Brentford and is already Premier League proven. Last season, the 29-year-old scored 19 goals in the division and is well up to speed with the demands of the division.
Despite not featuring at all at club level over the summer as he waited for his move to Newcastle to materialise, he has picked up where he left off last season by scoring in both games for DR Congo over the international break.
Meanwhile, Woltemade has had plenty of football this season, featuring three times and scoring once for Stuttgart before his £65million move to Newcastle was completed.
He has also featured twice for Germany over the international break, making the step up from under-21 level after winning the Golden Boot at the European Championships over the summer.
The 23-year-old is Newcastle's club record signing and, long term, is surely the man to replace Alexander Isak as the club's marquee forward.
He scored 17 goals for Stuttgart in all competitions last season but clearly hasn't got the experience of English football that Wissa has.
Howe typically likes to try and gradually bed in his signings from abroad so all the logic would suggest that Wissa would start on Saturday, with Woltemade perhaps starting for the first time in next Thursday's Champions League clash against Barcelona.
However, Woltemade returned to Newcastle training on Tuesday and would have had four days on the training ground with his new team-mates and getting accustomed to the demands of Howe and his staff.
By contrast, Wissa was in action for DR Congo on Tuesday evening and won't be returning to Newcastle training until Thursday at the earliest.
That only gives him two days to train with his new team-mates and those extra two days of training and information Woltemade would have gathered should give him the edge when it comes to Howe's team selection on Saturday.
Whatever way Howe decides to go, it is a huge boost that Newcastle now have two recognised strikers to choose from. The context of this week, though, should tip things in Woltemade's favour to get the nod against Wolves.