Paul Merson believes only time will tell if Newcastle United made the right decision to sell Alexander Isak
Newcastle United finally let rebellious striker Alexander Isak leave the club on deadline day, having secured two centre-forwards to replace him.
The line from Newcastle all summer was that if they could bring in two strikers, they'd explore the idea of letting Isak leave. Behind the scenes, it sounds like the decision was already made to let him go as he was deemed to be too disruptive, but they, of course, couldn't just come out and say that, or it would have played into Liverpool's hands.
Newcastle still took a hit on their valuation of Isak, whom they had reportedly wanted to receive £150 million for, ultimately letting him go for £125 million.
Fittingly, Newcastle spent £125 million on two strikers to replace him, with Nick Woltemade coming in for the best part of £70 million and Yoane Wissa for £55 million.
Paul Merson believes Newcastle's striker transfers' level of success will be measured by what Alexander Isak does at Liverpool
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Paul Merson has said that only time will tell whether Newcastle have done the right thing (h/t NUFCBlog).
“Eddie Howe will be hoping that the two lads score more goals than Isak, and I think we’ll all be looking at that.”
“At the end of the season it’ll come down to ‘Can the two at Newcastle outscore Isak?’
“And if they do, they made the right decision.”
It's going to be about more than just goals
We'd like to think that the combined goals tally of Woltemade and Wissa will at least match what Isak is able to net at Liverpool this season.
Our feeling is that Wissa will probably bag the bulk of the goals and is more likely to be the regular starter for Eddie Howe, while Woltemade adapts to the new league.
We saw how many goals Wissa was able to score for Brentford last season, and with Anthony Elanga and Anthony Gordon supporting him, there's nothing to say he can't do the same again for us.
Even if they don't out-score Isak this season, there will be other factors at play that will determine whether they've been successful signings.
