Can toothless Toon somehow rise above wreckage of Isak disaster?

RIGHT, we're rapidly coming up to the bit where Eddie Howe sits in Clive Myrie’s Mastermind chair and all questions on Geordies’ specialist subject will be answered.

- JOHNGIBSON

How much damage has Alexander Isak done to Newcastle United? Can they win at Aston Villa without a goalscoring centre-forward in sight? What will team confidence and the famed togetherness be like? How many of the three new signings will start? Can United avoid two successive defeats against Villa and Liverpool to heighten the darkening mood of the summer? What sort of season will we have?

There’s half a dozen questions which we all want answering in the positive rather than negative.

What we can say straight away is that Isak has damaged us all right. It is just how much. It has all become like a bad smell in a room with the door slammed shut and the windows bolted. We need fresh air but none has been on supply.

Isak won't play at Villa and United daren’t let him play for Liverpool at St James’ Park in the next match. That would potentially be suicidal. Not a chance in a month of Sundays of that happening.

United are left looking for the next Isak...a bright young No.9 Howe can help mould and guide into a £150m striker.

Of course Isak was bursting with talent when United signed him - that's why they signed him - but he wasn’t the finished article. Far from it.

He had only scored six La Liga goals in 32 appearances in his last Spanish season. Yes, he had notched 17 the previous time round but six is a poor return for a club spearhead. Was his mind elsewhere?