Plus: Newcastle step up their pursuit of Jacob Ramsey ahead of their Premier League opener against Aston Villa on Saturday
Newcastle United are set to kick off the new Premier League season with makeshift striker Anthony Gordon leading the line with deals to sign a new forward still stalled.
Gordon should shake off a minor fitness worry from last weekend to reprise the centre-forward role he filled against Atletico Madrid, but that doesn’t disguise a major issue for Newcastle, who have been unable to even replace Callum Wilson in the summer transfer window.
They remain very interested in a striking a deal for Brentford forward Yoane Wissa – who also has his mind set on moving to Newcastle – but The i Paper understands there’s been no substantive progress on a deal this week.
Indeed, his status remains as it was when The i Paper reported last month that the Bees consider him not for sale at any price until they source reinforcements.
With Bryan Mbeumo’s replacement not yet sourced they would be looking for two attacking forwards before 1 September if they allow Wissa to leave, which means Newcastle continue to wait or begin to step up efforts on other strikers that they have identified to replace Wilson.
It is understood that of the other targets the club have – Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa has been considered, with Samu Aghehowa of Porto another liked by Newcastle’s recruitment team – there is no striker that would represent value.
Aghehowa is valued in the same bracket as Benjamin Sesko by his club but Newcastle consider him a much more unproven prospect.
Wissa is considered a replacement for Wilson, not the sort of signing that would enable them to do a deal with Liverpool for wantaway Alexander Isak.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Jackson is understood to be keen on a move to Newcastle but there has been no bid from St James’ Park and there is far from uniformity about whether to make a move.
Newcastle see having more time to source an Isak successor as preferable to spending for the sake of it in the summer – whatever that means in the short-term for Isak’s hopes of moving to Liverpool.
All of which means that for this weekend at least Newcastle face the choice of playing Gordon in an unfavoured position, or turning to Will Osula, who scored just one goal last season and has not pressed his case in pre-season to replace the unsettled Isak.
Howe admitted last weekend that supporters who feared the club has been left toothless with Isak not prepared to play for the club had a point, suggesting they need to find other ways to win matches.
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But the prospect of playing their opening fixtures without a senior, specialist striker is a daunting one considering they face two of last season’s top five in their first two games.
It is far from ideal and when Eddie Howe addressed the media on Friday the majority of the questions are likely – once again – to be about Isak rather than the trip to Aston Villa.
The Athletic reported this week that Isak considers his Newcastle career over, with his representatives having told the club he will not play for them again.
But with no transfer request handed in and Newcastle not having disciplined him yet, perhaps there an element of posturing from Isak’s camp – who are desperate to secure him a move to Liverpool.
Newcastle are certainly not prepared to let him leave without sufficiently quality striker reinforcements themselves and any deal would require Liverpool’s opening offer of £110m to be significantly improved.
Part of the problem now is that Newcastle’s view of the striker market now is that there any options currently available who could replace Isak, with Sesko and Hugo Ekitike having moved elsewhere.
That could change in the final, more frantic weeks of the window but that is the current of state of play.
Meanwhile the Magpies continue to work on a deal for Jacob Ramsey, having held club-to-club talks with Aston Villa this week, but there is still work to be on that transfer.
A £40m deal has been mooted and would represent a significant addition for Howe, who is a long-term admirer of Ramsey.