Learn the lessons and hurry things along...

NEWCASTLE have flirted with more fluttering eyelashes than Casanova but with a lot less success.

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The latest two are Yoane Wissa and Malick Thiaw. Dare we be hopeful this time? Surely initial encouragement will end in fruition at long last. Rumours are that the fat lady has indeed been booked to sing. What a boost that would be as we exist on a diet of bread and water.

While we look for the sight of reinforcements crossing the Tyne Bridge we must endure the biggest tug of war in football... with the emphasis on war. United’s stubborn owners at one end of the rope, a furious Alexander Isak at the other with Eddie Howe the piggy in the middle. Who will blink first?

Will United's Saudi owners let him go or will Isak return to his senses? It really is anyone's guess with the odds shifting almost by the hour.

Following Newcastle has never been easy or predictable. We are always just one step away from abject horror even after all that was achieved last season.

Isak has been as visual as a hermit down a hole and as each desertion has played out in the glare of public scrutiny Eddie has looked more strained as he tries to retain dignity and walk a political tightrope between backing the owners, keeping the door open with the player, and looking strong rather than weak with the fans.

I feel for him because he has suffered more than anyone. Howe did so much to bring out the exceptional qualities of Isak and has been rewarded not only by the thought of losing him but being disrespected by the way the player has thrown his toys out of the pram. It has reached the dreadful stage of Isak being banished to train by himself.

He needs to grow up, be cute, work a deal out with Newcastle rather than Liverpool over when he may leave, and play to his considerable strengths scoring shoals of goals rather than waste time sulking.