If there’s been one key takeaway from Newcastle United’s opening two games of the Premier League season, it’s that we look a clinical striker away from wins after a draw and a defeat in our first couple of matches.
Yes, Alexander Isak could yet stay, and Will Osula did find the back of the net against Liverpool shortly after coming on, but each game could have been put to bed if Eddie Howe had a clinical no.9 at his disposal in the first half of both the Aston Villa and Liverpool games.
Newcastle are clearly keen on Jorgen Strand Larsen of Wolves, having a £50m bid rejected for the Norwegian on Monday.
But it seems the club returned on Tuesday night with offer number two for the 6ft 4″ forward, while a deal for Yoane Wissa is far from dead based on reports emerging last night.
According to reports late last night, Newcastle United have had a £55m bid turned down by Wolves for Jorgen Strand Larsen.
This has been confirmed by Sky Sports Keith Downie, The Mail’s Craig Hope and Fabrizio Romano, and it’s been suggested that a third bid is imminent now the player is eager to join Eddie Howe’s Mags.
On Tuesday night, Strand Larsen came on and scored twice in a Carabao Cup win over West Ham, although his heroics were quickly followed by a telling message from Vitor Perieira, who did little to rule out a potential late sale:
“Until now, Jorgen is our player, and we’ll see what happens. Football is football — every player has a price, I believe. Even Messi, or Cristiano. But he is very, very important for us. We’ll see what happens.
“I know him very well. He will never, never force (a move). There are players I have known in this situation, and they just ask me not to play. But Larsen wants to play every time.
“(Tonight) in the end, he goes in at centre-back and defends. It means that he has the character. But of course, we know football is football. We must be ready for everything.”
If we want to sign Strand Larsen and have him eligible in time to play at Elland Road against Leeds on Saturday, then we will need to have the deal confirmed and the player registered by midday on Friday, giving us just over 48 hours to finalise any sort of deal.
In order for us to remotely consider any sale of Alexander Isak this summer, the owners have made it clear we need at least two new strikers through the door first.
Should Strand Larsen be the first, who stands the best chance of being our second?
Yoane Wissa could still be that option, with The Mail’s Craig Hope revealing that a deal remains ‘alive’ after talks took place between Newcastle and Brentford on Tuesday.
Hope’s sources suggest a deal could still go through, with Newcastle hoping for progress in the next few days at the Bees eye Borussia Dortmund’s Max Beier as a potential replacement.
Whatever happens, we haven’t got long to sort it now, with the window slamming shut next Monday after a tiring three months on Tyneside.