Questions must be asked over why Newcastle spent so much on Nick Woltemade when he doesn’t fit into the team
10:06, 01 Mar 2026Updated 17:23, 01 Mar 2026
Newcastle United’s Nick Woltemade(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Image)
What is it with the Premier League? Do Newcastle United not like bread and butter? Is it all about caviar? Are they excitement junkies?
Give them the glamour and glitz of the big occasion and United excel. Into the Champions League last 16, making it all the way to the semi-finals of the League Cup, a home tie away from the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
However when it comes to a 38-match slog through the weeks and months of the PL it is a very different script. Forever hovering round the lower half of the division, a 3-2 home defeat to Everton was their third successive PL reversal at Barrack Road, the first time it has happened since the same time of year back in 2021 under Steve Bruce.
They leaked two goals home to Aston Villa, three goals home to Brentford, and three goals home to Everton. Twice after striving for an equaliser United gave up a goal to the opposition within two minutes through horrific defending topped off by Nick Pope’s monumental clanger. That’s now five defeats in United’s last six league games.
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Champions League qualification is all but gone, a mere dream. Clouds in our coffee. Europe of any sort is becoming a distant target with every game that goes by.
Everton almost killed our Champions League hopes with a 1-0 victory here on the last day of last season – only Aston Villa imploding allowed us to qualify in fifth. Here they almost certainly swept away any dwindling hopes of somehow squeezing back into a seat at Europe’s top table.
All of which begs the question: are United a team of Big Time Charlies? Can’t they handle a workload? Do they sleep walk on an ordinary match day?
May I put forward two more pertinent questions, as harsh as they may seem. First, what on earth is Nick Woltemade? And second is Anthony Elanga ever going to offer more than blistering pace? We spent £124m in the summer on them both for what is a miniscule return.
Woltemade is a conundrum. Is he a centre-forward? No. A midfielder expertly converted a la Joelinton? No. A No 10? Don’t know because United don’t play with a No 10.
Against Everton he started left midfield and was switched on the half-hour mark to centre-forward without influencing the game in either position.
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He, along with Elanga, was hauled off after only 58 minutes during which time he had 14 touches of the ball and none in the 18-yard box. What sort of contribution is that? Eddie says Newcastle didn’t get him into the game. May I pose a more pertinent question: how about him getting himself into the game!
The German doesn’t possess either the physical midfield presence of Big Joe nor the penalty box guile, runs behind, and finish of Alexander Isak.
I’m getting a little fed up with being told he has ‘good feet’. Good feet is something Iliman Ndiaye has and showed to devastating effect for Everton. The truth is Nick lacks pace – he ambles never sprints – and lacks dynamism.
A pale shadow of what you expect from a club record signing which brings us back on my original thought: why on earth did United splash out £69m for a player with no pace when the whole of United’s side has been built by Eddie Howe around quickness and a relentless press?
As for Elanga he runs like Usain Bolt . . . and plays right wing like Usain Bolt.
I know I’ll inflame some United fans with my criticism of both players, especially Big Nick, but I can only honestly say what I think and what I see. Opinion is about the individual.
I am not alone in my despair. Two Newcastle No 9 legends, Alan Shearer and SuperMac, are equally perplexed by Woltemade and they know a thing or two about centre-forward play.
I dearly wish it was different – that we had two jewels in the crown – but having studied them all season and given them the benefit of the doubt early doors in the hope they would win me over I am afraid I am at a loss. My patience exhausted.
Prove me wrong lads. I would be delighted, honestly I would, for the sake of our club but I’m not holding my breath.
Let us rescue the season through the Champions League and FA Cup but regardless there is considerable work to be done in the summer.
We MUST buy a centre-forward, we must sort out the whole goalkeeping situation, we must sign a right-back with Tino Livramento refusing to commit to a new contract which tells us everything, and we must get rid of players. That’s only for starters.
What is worrying is that United’s recruitment, so great when the Saudis and Howe first arrived, has dramatically tailed off. We must get back to what we once were because none of the summer signings has made the explosive impact that others like Bruno, Kieran Trippier, Sandro Tonali, and Isak once did.
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