Yoane Wissa's Struggles at Newcastle: A Season of Disappointment
Yoane Wissa arrived at St James’ Park with a story already written for him. The No.9 shirt. Alan Shearer’s shadow. A late-window deal meant to calm the nerves after Alexander Isak’s shock move to Liverpool. It was supposed to be a statement. It has become a problem.
Newcastle plucked him from Brentford on deadline day in September, banking on the player who had terrorised defences in west London last season. They expected the same relentless running, the same sharp finishing, the same chaos in the box. Instead, the season barely got off the ground.
A knee injury on international duty wrecked his start. He did not make his competitive debut until December, already months behind his new teammates in rhythm and understanding. By the time he was fit, Newcastle’s campaign had moved on without him.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. Twenty-four appearances in all competitions. Only one start in the last 16 games. Just three goals. For a Newcastle No.9, that return bites.
Inside the club, patience has thinned. According to The Athletic, Newcastle plan to actively explore moving Wissa on in the summer window. Eight months after signing him, they are prepared to cut their losses, even if that means a sizeable financial hit.
This is not a simple contract issue. Wissa is tied down on a long-term deal and has made it clear he wants to stay and fight for his place. He came to Tyneside to be a leading man, not a footnote. But the mood in the boardroom is shifting in a different direction.
Newcastle sit 14th in the Premier League and are bracing for a season without European football. That changes everything. The squad needs rebalancing, the wage bill needs trimming, and financial regulations loom large over every decision. Sentiment has little room in those calculations.
Eddie Howe has tried to shield his striker in public. Ahead of the clash with Brighton, the Newcastle manager underlined how disrupted Wissa’s first year has been, stressing that the club has not yet seen the real version of the forward.
“The most difficult part for Yoane is that he got back fit, there was a huge feeling inside of him that he wanted to rush back and show everybody how good he is, but we haven’t been able to train him in the way we normally would,” Howe said. “It was very stop-start and we didn’t see the best of him. I think a pre-season would really show the best of him.”
Those words carry encouragement, but not certainty. Howe praised the talent, yet stopped short of any firm guarantee about Wissa’s future. The door is open. It is not locked.
The context of his signing now hangs over the situation. Wissa was never the first name on Newcastle’s list. The club had pushed for Joao Pedro, Hugo Ekitike and Jorgen Strand Larsen. None arrived. With the window closing, no sporting director in post and no chief executive to steer the process, Newcastle scrambled. The Wissa deal was done late, in a vacuum that has since been filled by David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson.
That new recruitment structure is already casting a critical eye over past decisions. Inside the club, the Wissa transfer is increasingly viewed as an expensive panic buy, a move that did not fit the long-term plan as tightly as it should have.
Now the conversation has flipped. As the 2025-26 campaign winds down, the talk on Tyneside is of a sweeping overhaul. Newcastle are scouring the market for a new striker, someone to bring reliable goals and genuine competition at the top end of the pitch. Every position is under review. The No.9 shirt is no longer sacred.
For Wissa, that reality sharpens the stakes. The final games of the season are no longer just fixtures; they are an audition. Either he convinces Howe and the recruitment team that there is a second act for him at St James’ Park, or he uses this spell to advertise himself to the rest of Europe.
One way or another, this summer looks like the moment his Newcastle story is rewritten – or cut short.
