Newcastle are set to raise their offer for Yoane Wissa to more than £30million after Brentford stepped up interest in trying to sign Bournemouth’s Dango Ouattara as a replacement.
Newcastle have had an unsettling transfer window and a £25million bid for the forward was rejected by Brentford last month. Brentford have not put a valuation on Wissa, who will turn 29 in September, but they were hoping for about £40million. He has one year left on his contract but the club have the option to extend it by one season until 2027.
Wissa, who scored 19 goals and claimed five assists in the league last season, wants to join Newcastle and personal terms are not thought to be an issue. Newcastle need attacking options to cope with four competitions after being left with William Osula as the only alternative to Alexander Isak, who has been the subject of a rejected bid from Liverpool. They signed Anthony Elanga, the winger, for £52million from Nottingham Forest.
Ouattara scored nine goals for Bournemouth last season
WARREN LITTLE/GETTY IMAGES)
Ouattara, 23, has told Bournemouth that he wants to explore his options after interest from Brentford. The winger has three years left on his deal having joined from Lorient for £20million in January 2023. Last season he scored seven league goals — including a hat-trick against Forest — and claimed four assists.
Eddie Howe, the Newcastle head coach, has left the door open for Alexander Isak to end his damaging stand-off at the club, even though he admits the unsettled forward is unlikely to feature in their Premier League opener away to Aston Villa next week.
Isak has yet to be disciplined for his efforts to engineer a transfer to Liverpool as Howe deals with what he describes as one of the most challenging situations of his managerial career.
The 25-year-old did not travel with his team-mates on the pre-season trip to the Far East last month due to injury in the wake of Liverpool’s failed £110million bid for the Sweden international, who has informed Newcastle of his wish to leave.
Howe says Isak’s situation has “disrupted the group”
PA
Isak flew to Spain to train at his former club Real Sociedad before returning to Tyneside. The Newcastle squad were back at the training ground on Wednesday morning and their families were invited to join them after training, but Isak was told to train separately and did not receive an invitation to the event.
Howe said: “It’s probably been the most high-profile issue I’ve dealt with in my managerial career and I hope there’s a positive outcome.
“It’s clear at the moment we can’t involve him with the group. The most important thing is the team not any one individual. I don’t know how long that will be for, that’s the latest. He’s here, he has a future at Newcastle and we’d love to see him back with the team but the situation has to be right for that to happen.
“He’s here and he’s contracted to us so as long as he’s in that position there’s a chance he could play for Newcastle but I don’t know what the future will hold. The group’s been disrupted of course. I don’t think we’ve been in that kind of position since I’ve been here. It’s been a distraction, a topic of conversation.”
Asked if he can draw a line and tell Isak he is staying, Howe admitted: “It’s not that straightforward, we’re not in a position to do that currently.
“He’s got no fitness issues. I’d want him playing today, training tomorrow, we’d love him to be with us. There’s no part of me that doesn’t want that outcome but I don’t see that changing before the Aston Villa game.”