Newcastle United striker Nick Woltemade officially €30m more valuable than Liverpool's Alexander Isak: report

A study has suggested that Newcastle United striker Nick Woltemade is now worth more than the man he replaced, Alexander Isak.

It was the transfer saga of the summer, as former Magpie Isak forced through his desired move to Premier League champions Liverpool, much to the dissatisfaction of Newcastle fans.

To add insult to injury, the Reds also poached one of Isak’s potential replacements in Hugo Ekitike, leaving Eddie Howe’s outfit scrambling towards the end of the window.

Newcastle's Nick Woltemade now more valuable than Alexander Isak

They eventually landed on Woltemade, signed from Stuttgart in a club-record £69m deal, who hit the ground running with four goals in his first five games.

The same cannot be said for Isak at Liverpool, who broke the British transfer record, but managed just two league goals before staring down a lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury, picked up in the course of scoring the second of those two goals.

In a study by CIES Football Observatory, it has been suggested that Woltemade has overtaken Isak in terms of transfer value.

The data firm calculates that the Newcastle man is worth €120.5m (£104.5m) at current rates, with Isak some way behind with a valuation of €95m (£82.5m).

CIES produces these valuations through what they term a “scientific statistical model” that takes into account the age, position and contract length of the player, their performance, club-related metrics and overall market trends.

By their calculations, Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Ekitike and Florian Wirtz are all more valuable than Isak as things stand, with only Ekitike and Wirtz outstripping Woltemade’s value.

To the surprise of nobody, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal tops the global list, with a valuation of €343.1m, some way ahead of his closest competitor, Erling Haaland, said to be worth a measly €255.1m.

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, given their ages and contrasting injury records, it is not a huge surprise that Woltemade has overtaken Isak in this chart.

It has been a difficult start for Isak at Liverpool, but he is not an outlier at Anfield in that regard; a mixture of team-wide poor form, bad luck in terms of injury and stratospherically high expectations have all taken their toll.

But we all know what the Swede is capable of on a consistent basis from his time at St James’ Park.

He may be down now, but at 26 years old, he certainly isn’t out.