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What exactly happened with Big Nick Woltemade?
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- What exactly happened with Big Nick Woltemade?
Peter Crouch and Nick Woltemade Newcastle | Credit: SmartFrame Images | News Images
Nick Woltemade scored on his Premier League debut and his Champions League debut, goals that helped secure wins for Newcastle United over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Union Saint-Gilloise at the beginning of last season.
He also scored against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest in United's following two Premier League fixtures at St James' Park, making him the first player since Alan Shearer in 1996 to score in his first three home league games, Shearer having repeated the exploits of Les Ferdinand the previous season.
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By October 2025, Nick Woltemade was therefore in exalted company.
So why is it that less than 12 months later, he finds himself surplus to requirements, offloaded to Juventus for a paltry £3.5 million, a loan deal that will hopefully see the lanky German pulling up trees to secure a permanent move to the Old Lady, or better still, helping Newcastle United to recoup the £65 million they paid to VfB Stuttgart as numerous offers flow in.
His goal tally certainly tells a large part of that story.
Of the eleven goals Woltemade plundered in all competitions, only two came after the turn of the calendar year, a miserable return for a striker that was admittedly playing out of position, in a team that was equally devoid of confidence.
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It was certainly a surprise when Nick Woltemade arrived late in the 2025 summer window. The Alexander Isak debacle had overshadowed the whole of the close season and as successive strikers turned down the chance to move to Gallowgate, Woltemade arrived just ahead of Yoane Wissa, the latter injured whilst on international duty, meaning Wolt became United's first choice striker.
With the demands of European football and another run to the League Cup semi-finals meaning Newcastle United were playing three games a week from mid-September, Woltemade was played too much, too soon, in my opinion, not how Eddie Howe would usually introduce his new acquisitions, but needs must and all that. I don't think the circumstances that conspired to create these conditions helped the German in settling to life at a Premier League outfit.
Then came the own goal that gifted the Mackems the win in the derby at their place. That must have knocked the lad's confidence, an awful moment for the individual against the backdrop of a quite dreadful team performance and yet, within a week he'd bagged two goals in an electric fifteen minute spell at the Leazes End against Chelsea, redemption of sorts, but curiously, that's also when the goals dried up.
Lightweight, brittle, easily dispossessed and guilty of too many wayward passes, hallmarks not just of Woltemade, but of his team mates in general, the German's season petered out in much the same way as United's did, a team running low on energy and displaying little in the way of conviction.
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Woltemade carried these traits through to the World Cup, playing a peripheral role for his country until it mattered, a lackadaisical penalty in a shootout the Germans lost against Miggy Almiron's Paraguay.
This of course, preceding the major summer changes at St James' Park , manager Eddie Howe, the only one to lift a domestic trophy in seventy years departing and replaced by the German, Matthias Jaissle.
If there was ever a set of circumstances where things might have turned for the big Wolt, it was surely going to be with the appointment of his fellow countryman, someone who might have 'got' the enigmatic striker?
Judging by the striker's performances in pre-season, it seems that Matthias Jaissle didn't take long in making up his mind, no doubt doubling down on his opinion after the lacklusture way in which Woltemade went about his business with that insipid performance against West Brom in the League Cup.
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Henceforth, it's off to Italy he goes, if not a dream move for big Nick, one that Sandro Tonali must be insanely jealous of.
I think Nick Woltemade goes with most fans' blessing and best wishes. He is after all, still employed by Newcastle United, he could still return and make a fist of things in NE1, we shall see…
