Credit: Manh Tung/Imago

Chris Smith

Thu 21 August 2025 19:26, UK

Wayne Rooney has blasted the behaviour of Brentford striker Yoane Wissa as he seeks to push through a move to Newcastle United.

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Wissa notched 19 goals in the Premier League last season to help fire Brentford to a 10th-place finish, with only Bryan Mbeumo (20) outscoring him among Bees players.

Brentford have already sold the latter to Manchester United this summer, alongside losing captain Christian Norgaard, goalkeeper Mark Flekken and manager Thomas Frank.

Now, the Bees are battling to keep hold of Wissa amid intense interest from Newcastle, who face the possibility of losing their own star striker Alexander Isak to Liverpool.

Yoane Wissa’s Brentford stats in the 2024-25 season (Credit: Imago)

Just like Isak, Wissa is desperate to make the move this summer and recently deleted all trace of Brentford from his Instagram profile in a clear indication of his intentions.

Understandably, this has not gone down well with Brentford supporters, while Wissa was left out of the squad for the weekend’s 3-1 defeat away at Nottingham Forest to open the new Premier League season.

Former Manchester United and Everton striker Rooney has criticised Wissa’s actions, especially against the club that has helped supercharge his career — with the 28-year-old playing just 40 games of top-flight football in France before arriving at the Gtech Community Stadium.

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“I think Wissa is in a worse position than Isak is purely for that,” Rooney told BBC Sport in reference to Wissa’s Instagram cleanout (21 August).

“For Wissa to just unfollow the club and take all his pictures down of a club who’ve helped you progress as a player…

“I think these players are like kids now, or they’re very badly advised in what they’re doing, because I know agents have influence.

“A lot of people have their father or the brother as an agent now.

So it’s very disappointing to see his behaviour over the past few days.”

Newcastle would rather keep Isak and sign Wissa (Credit: Manh Tung, Breaking Media/Imago)

While Wissa would be a capable replacement for Isak, Newcastle still won’t want to lose their star man.

Callum Wilson has already left the Magpies this summer at the end of his contract, leaving Isak as Eddie Howe’s only experienced No.9 — with William Osula disappointing during pre-season.

With that in mind, a departure for Isak this late in the window would leave Howe and Newcastle’s recruitment staff facing an uphill battle to have the forward line ready for Champions League football.

Of course, there is still a universe where Newcastle have both strikers at their disposal.

The Magpies have been steadfast in their desire to keep Isak so far, and the pursuit of Wissa was never thought to be tied to the Sweden international’s future.

Former Everton and Aston Villa CEO Keith Wyness recently tipped Newcastle to sign Wissa and keep Isak, telling Football Insider that the deals will all come down to ‘timing’.

Howe would have to pull off the mother of all reintegration programmes with Isak should that happen, with the striker drawing huge backlash from Newcastle fans — while he’s been training apart from the first team squad recently.
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