Nick Woltemade, Eddie Howe and Yoane Wissaplaceholder image
Nick Woltemade, Eddie Howe and Yoane Wissa | Getty Images
Nick Woltemade has bizarrely been named as one of the ‘worst’ summer signings despite an impressive start to life at Newcastle United - here’s why.
Nick Woltemade is already into double figures for club and country this season following a string of impressive displays for Newcastle United and the German national team.
The 23-year-old has scored four goals in his last three matches for Germany while also finding the net six times in 12 starts for Newcastle since joining the club from VfB Stuttgart in the summer.
But after failing to find the net in each of Newcastle’s last three Premier League matches, Woltemade will be looking to get back amongst the goals in Saturday’s return to action against Manchester City at St James’ Park (5:30pm kick-off).
While Woltemade has been a largely successful signing for Newcastle so far given his goal return, his significant price tag has been the subject of some scrutiny.
Nick Woltemade bizarrely named among ‘worst’ Premier League summer transfers
The German media and several key figures linked to Bayern Munich criticised Newcastle, and in turn, Woltemade for the significant transfer fee paid for the 23-year-old.
Woltemade joined Stuttgart on a free transfer in 2024 before being sold for £65million, rising to £69million just over a year later. Bayern Munich attempted to sign Woltemade before Newcastle swooped in to agree a deal.
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Despite his solid start to life in the Premier League, ESPN listed Woltemade as the third ‘worst’ summer signing this season. Second was his Newcastle teammate Yoane Wissa, who is yet to play for the club since his £55million move from Brentford.
And leading the way by some distance is the £130million Premier League record transfer Alexander Isak, who left Newcastle to join Liverpool on deadline day.
The list is not a person’s opinion but rather a metric used by ESPN to determine a signing’s value for money based on how much they have featured so far. The metric used to calculate the so-called ‘worst’ transfers was a player’s transfer fee multiplied by the percentage of minutes he hasn’t played in so far this season.
With Wissa and Isak both being hit with injury and not featuring as much as they would have wanted, it is no surprise they lead the way given their respective large transfer fees. But Woltemade’s inclusion is interesting given that he’s playing regularly for Newcastle and generally playing well.
Yoane Wissa named ‘worst transfer of the summer’
But taking into account performances, neither Woltemade nor Isak featured in ESPN’s overall list, but Wissa came out on top.
ESPN wrote: “While there are all kinds of caveats with these rankings, no such conditionals apply here. Purely based on the first three months of the season, this is easily the worst transfer of the summer. Wissa hasn't played a single minute for Newcastle yet, but it's worse than that. Everyone else in this top 10 is 23 or younger. In fact, everyone else in the top 25 is 24 or younger. These are all players with plenty of time to improve and come good, to make up for lost time.
“Wissa, though, is already 29 years old.”
Wissa is yet to make his debut for Newcastle after picking up a knee injury on international duty with DR Congo just days after joining the club. But he has been back on the grass and is pushing to return to fitness ahead of the busy festive fixture schedule.
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