We’re approaching December, and Callum Wilson has still not recovered from injury and made his first Premier League appearance for Newcastle United.
One of the most prolific forwards in the Premier League only a few seasons ago, Wilson, 32, is now suffering from a combination of hamstring and back problems.
Eddie Howe signed William Osula from Sheffield United in a £15m deal this summer, but the 21-year-old has only played ten minutes of top-flight football this season. That’s evidence enough that he’s not yet ready for a big-time role.
St. James’ Park needs more firepower. Bolstering the right flank is the priority this winter, but Newcastle aren’t averse to signing a new centre-forward. In fact, there’s one prospective deal in the pipeline right now.
Newcastle looking at new centre-forward
As per Football Transfers, Paris Saint-Germain are looking to loan out Randal Kolo Muani this January, with the versatile forward flattering to deceive under Luis Enrique.
Newcastle are joined by West Ham United in eyeing a deal, with both English outfits in need of some added firepower to improve their respective campaigns.
The France forward might have sought to placate rumours of a January exit when recently quizzed, but his struggles in Paris are real, and if a team like Newcastle present a compelling case, there’s every chance that he could move across the Channel.
What Randal Kolo Muani would bring to Newcastle
PSG signed Kolo Muani for more than £76m in 2023 after the Frenchman had lit up the Bundesliga and made an impression in Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus squad too.
It hasn’t gone to plan in Paris. The 25-year-old’s debut campaign with France’s dominant club saw him score nine goals and assist six more across 40 outings. Not the return that would have been envisaged by half.
The hope of improvement seems to have fallen flat, for Kolo Muani has posted just two goals across 12 appearances this year, starting twice in Ligue 1 despite Kylian Mbappe’s move to Real Madrid in the summer.
Even so, circumstances under Enrique have contributed to his struggles. Kolo Muani has the skills to succeed at Newcastle: potent, powerful and pacy, with positional flexibility besides.
Centre-forward
145
50
34
Right winger
20
5
3
Left winger
12
5
1
Attacking midfield
2
0
1
His bread and butter is spread across the central striker’s position, though, and given that he would be joining the Tyneside cause in January, the target could prove to be Howe’s own version of Papiss Cisse, arriving to supplement the excellent Alexander Isak.
Cisse also has French roots, like Kolo Muani, but that’s by the by. The real grist of this argument is that Newcastle are heading toward the season’s midpoint with a high-class striker in Isak, with four goals from four recent matches, but also lacking in substance at number nine.
What if the Swedish star falls injured in the months to come? He might be a “world-class” goalscorer, as pundit Jamie Redknapp has remarked, but Isak has already proven that he’s prone to blank spells this year, enduring a slow start.
It’s a bit like the one-time Cisse and Demba Ba partnership. Ba had been mesmerising across the opening months of the 2011/12 campaign. Alan Pardew’s Magpies were flying high, and the Senegalese striker was the focal offensive source.
Newcastle were on fire, with Ba joining on a free transfer in the summer of 2011 after Everton were beaten to his signature. Ba failed to score in any of his first four appearances but then racked up an incredible haul of 16 goals and three assists across 16 appearances. Remarkable. But Ba’s brilliance proved to be a byword for purple patch.
Newcastle were fighting for a Champions League spot, and Ba, being the only clinical striker, needed support. Thus, Cisse was brought in from German Bundesliga outfit Freiburg for a £10m fee. Ba’s prolificness deserted him, but the very aura of that quality fused into his countryman, who began to wreak havoc across the latter months of the season.
Isak is good enough that he will not suffer a goalscoring degeneration for a lasting period, but Kolo Muani could certainly go a long way toward helping Howe’s side achieve their goals this term.
German legend Lothar Matthaus even believes that he could develop into one of the finest forwards in the world. “He has remarkable technical ability,” the 1990 Ballon d’Or winner said to L’Equipe. “He’s ice-cold in front of goal and he really throws himself into challenges. The most impressive thing is that he’s performing in every game. I can’t remember a match where he’s played badly. That’s the mark of a future superstar.”
Just because Kolo Muani has failed to make the desired impact with PSG, it doesn’t mean he won’t be able to light up the Premier League.
After all, the £203k-per-week forward ranks among 5% of positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for successful take-ons and the top 10% for tackles per 90, as per FBref.
A successful take-on is recorded when a player beats their opponent by directly carrying the ball past them while retaining possession.
He also notched 40 goal contributions from 46 matches during the 2022/23 season, his last with Frankfurt, in what brilliantly illustrated the product that a team like Newcastle, who could offer him prominence, might reap.
Newcastle stand proud as the side that enjoyed the fruits of one of the Premier League’s most iconic forward partnerships, way back when. Now, Howe must repeat the feat as he mounts a challenge back toward a place among Europe’s elite.
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