Nick Woltemade

[Optimistic Nut]

59 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Yeah, he was shit.  I can remember being in the away end at Leeds early that season, when the realisation was really kicking in that he didn’t look up to snuff.  
 

The home match vs West Ham later that year - after the usual injuries - was when he started becoming a joke.  He was poor to shite when he played - we didn’t lose every game or anything as crazy as that, but nearly £6m for a centre half in 1999 was a lot of money. 

 

Leeds were doing well. 

[TheBrownBottle]

55 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Leeds were doing well. 

They were, but he was absolutely at fault - we should’ve got a result that day

[Fak]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Leeds were doing well. 

 

Just a member of N-O saying what a superb job Leeds were doing.

[El Prontonise]

57 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They were, but he was absolutely at fault - we should’ve got a result that day

 

Was that the 3-2 game?

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Leeds were doing well. 

 

10 minutes ago, Fak said:

 

Just a member of N-O saying what a superb job Leeds were doing.

What?  N-O don’t know about football

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, El Prontonise said:

 

Was that the 3-2 game?

It was - it was a canny match, but Marcelino and Barton in the same defence was just too much for us to handle  

[Loki679]

13 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

 

What?  N-O don’t know ball

 

fyp

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Loki679 said:

 

fyp

The cheeky scamps were making The Office (UK) references

[Fak]

1 hour ago, TheBrownBottle said:

The cheeky scamps were making The Office (UK) references

 

Yep. Loki dont stop it if you haven't got one. Slows it down.

[Loki679]

The Office is shite so happy to assist

[Loki679]

Ricky Gervais is an unfunny bellend too.

[TheBrownBottle]

3 minutes ago, Loki679 said:

The Office is shite so happy to assist

That’s not true 

1 minute ago, Loki679 said:

Ricky Gervais is an unfunny bellend too.

That is true

[Ben]

Loved this 

[DC Magpie]

On 28/05/2026 at 14:19, Ben said:

Loved this 

 

I think I read somewhere that he said in an interview afterwards he thought he'd overkicked it too high when it first left his foot. Heh. Course the next time he tried to roof the PK he hit the bar.

 

[TRC]

Wonder how things would have gone if he was our penalty taker after that pen like most assumed. Gordon probably doesn’t get his Barca move

[GEFAFWISP]

10 hours ago, TRC said:

Wonder how things would have gone if he was our penalty taker after that pen like most assumed. Gordon probably doesn’t get his Barca move

His asking price is over £100 million and he's a success story in his debut season.

[Viana]

Who fancies a bit of optimism on this Sunday?

 

Newcastle once signed a lanky young striker from abroad who recorded 10 goals and one assist in his first season, despite making just 22 starts. His name was Alexander Isak. They've now signed another lanky young striker from abroad who produced eight goals and three assists from 24 starts in his first season. His name is Nick Woltemade.

 

It's also worth noting that Isak took penalties, while Woltemade missed out on at least three spot-kick opportunities because Anthony Gordon was the designated taker. Give him those, and he's potentially looking at an 11-goal, three-assist season from 24 starts.

 

That's not to say Woltemade is the finished article. There are clear areas for improvement. For me, two stand out: his physicality and his shooting from distance. At times he almost looks too controlled when striking the ball, sacrificing power for placement.

 

None of that guarantees he'll reach Isak's level. But if we're looking for reasons to be encouraged, his first-season output compares more favorably than many seem willing to acknowledge. We just need to get wingers who sync with him better and identify what chances are going to best fit him. 

[DC Magpie]

I like optimism. What would you say is the main difference you see between Isak and Woltemade that might prevent Nick from excelling in Eddie's 4-3-3? Lack of ability to press, perhaps a lack of striker's "shoot first" mentality? What was it (if anything) that allowed Isak to thrive in Year 2 and can we replicate it? Or am I missing the point altogether?

 

WRT to the shooting thing, it's odd because if you look at his 2024-25 goals at Stuttgart, quite a few were from distance and they looked effortlessly struck. Nick's mental space needs a successful summer here in the States.

[Collage]

On 25/05/2026 at 11:38, Loki679 said:

The Office is shite so happy to assist

Ban

[Fenham Mag]

On the bench for Germany tonight, alongside Thiaw.

[LFEE]

5 minutes ago, Fenham Mag said:

On the bench for Germany tonight, alongside Thiaw.

No surprise surely if he’s 3rd choice CF for Germany?

[Kilcline]

47 minutes ago, DC Magpie said:

I like optimism. What would you say is the main difference you see between Isak and Woltemade that might prevent Nick from excelling in Eddie's 4-3-3? Lack of ability to press, perhaps a lack of striker's "shoot first" mentality? What was it (if anything) that allowed Isak to thrive in Year 2 and can we replicate it? Or am I missing the point altogether?

 

WRT to the shooting thing, it's odd because if you look at his 2024-25 goals at Stuttgart, quite a few were from distance and they looked effortlessly struck. Nick's mental space needs a successful summer here in the States.

I think a lot of people look at Woltemade and take a view on whether he's good or not at a very basic level, and I've almost certainly been guilty of it myself.

 

Comparing Woltemade to Isak in terms of what they bring is comparing apples with oranges. Totally different profile of player for starters, then you look at their respective backgrounds, and that Isak was the "best of the rest" while he was here after the unarguably world class strikers (Kane, Lewandowski, Haaland, Mbappe), and it's clearly completely unreasonable to expect anyone to follow that, perhaps unless we signed Victor Osimhen or Lautaro Martinez. 

 

Likewise with the Harry Kane comparisons. Kane is a complete footballer and one of the best centre forwards of all time. Woltemade clearly has qualities but we're nowhere near talking in that ballpark. 

 

Basically what the whole Woltemade debate comes down to is whether you believe that a) we have a system and should sign the best players to fit that system-in which case, Woltemade was either a panic buy or whoever scouted him should never work in football again, or b) the manager should adapt the system to suit the players he has.

 

That's a spectrum though.

 

So then the question really becomes: do you believe Isak was a case of us nailing the scouting and us capturing lightning in a bottle, or was he so good because the team was built around his abilities? 

 

And, again, that's probably on a spectrum. 

 

If you believe the latter, which is reasonable given his struggles at the scousers, the question then becomes "who should we build around?" And that's where the debate gets messy and lost, because people will say "Woltemade isn't anywhere near Isak," which is fine, but if we built the team around Isak why shouldn't we do it with Woltemade (or anyone)? Do we wait until we luck into signing another potentially world class centre forward before we build the team around someone? What do we do in the meantime? Back Howe and say "well he hasn't got the players he needs?" 

 

[Peppe]

On 25/05/2026 at 11:41, Loki679 said:

Ricky Gervais is an unfunny bellend too.

[HMSIllustrious]

Germany‘s selection tonight is not what Nagelsmann plans for the WC. Karl, Nmecha, Undav, Brown are hopefully not first choice.

[black_n_white]

Reluctantly I think we should sell Woltemade after the World Cup. There’s no world Howe uses him as a striker, I’m not even sure he’s suited to the premier league.