Will Osula likely to remain first-choice striker for Eddie Howe - Report

Newcastle United found goals pretty hard to come by last season, particularly from those who are employed to score them.

After losing Alexander Isak for £125 million and replacing him with Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa for around the same amount of money, many thought that we'd be fine for goals.

After all, Nick Woltemade had just bagged the golden boot for Germany Under 21s in the European Championships, and Yoane Wissa was the highest-scoring non-penalty taker in the season before.

Unfortunately, Wissa would pick up a serious injury soon after signing that totally derailed his season, and despite a good start, Nick Woltemade never really got to grips with the English game or Eddie Howe's style of play.

Newcastle will not pursue a new striker this summer

That left Eddie Howe with Will Osula, who had been given a few chances to show what he could do but never fully impressed. However, the young Dane went on a great run of scoring goals in the final few games of the season and staking a claim to the coveted striker role.

The season ended while Osula was on a roll, so there was no telling whether it was a purple patch or if he was starting to show the improvement that Howe had been hoping for, but it's likely that we'll find out next season.

In a Q&A for The Athletic, Chris Waugh has claimed that Newcastle will not be looking for a new striker this summer, and after weighing up selling Yoane Wissa, they've decided that the financial hit would be too great, and it would be the same for Woltemade. He went on to say that he expects Will Osula to lead the line for the season opener against Liverpool.

Osula gets our vote

We were impressed with Osula in the final few games of last season, and we're sure that with a good pre-season behind him, he can continue that form.

Similarly, though, we hope that Wissa and Woltemade can make big strides with a pre-season under Eddie Howe, which is something that both missed out on last year.

Woltemade will definitely feel he's got a point to prove after being overlooked for most of the World Cup, while Wissa will feel he's already made a statement with his performances for DR Congo.