Soon, it will all be over. Soon, the summer transfer market will have slammed down its shutters, and the noise produced by the Alexander Isak saga will be drowned out by the excitement of another campaign.

Newcastle United have already started their season, of course, having gone to Villa Park and emerged with a point which could have been three, if only the stylish visitors had had a free-scoring frontman.

Isak remains absent from first-team training and thus match contention, and with Callum Wilson now playing for West Ham United, it's imperative that PIF succeed in signing one or two high-level frontmen to lead Newcastle back into the Champions League, with hopes of landing another major honour also sitting in the recesses of Magpies' minds.

Well, progress has trickled along over the past several months, but with the window coming to a head, Newcastle appear to be edging closer to catching their quarry, with Brentford's Yoane Wissa the top target after a series of rejected bids.

Why Newcastle should sign Wissa

Earlier this week, Newcastle's second offer for Wissa, worth £35m plus difficult-to-achieve add-ons, was knocked back by the Bees, who are under no obligation to cash in, by any means.

However, Wissa has his heart set on a move to Tyneside, and such a burning passion to play in black and white is something that United must pounce on, for Howe's system is built on cohesion and hard work and commitment to the cause.

It's felt that certain Magpies sources, as revealed by The Athletic, are pessimistic over the chances of sealing a move for Wissa before the end of the transfer window, but the player's dogged determination to join Howe's squad has kept the flame alive.

An alternative has been earmarked in Wolverhampton Wanderers' Jørgen Strand Larsen, but at a reported price of around £60m, a formal approach for the Norwegian would perhaps be a profligate usage of resources.

Wissa is older, but with age comes wisdom, and he proved last year that he has the composure and honed technical ability to score consistently for a club like Newcastle.

Strand Larsen has his strengths, but there's another Premier League star on the radar who, yes, is raw, but also has a high ceiling and could go from strength to strength under Howe's tutelage.

Newcastle consider bid for Premier League striker

According to TEAMtalk, Newcastle are considering a proposal for Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson before the September 1st transfer deadline, with the 24-year-old up for sale at Stamford Bridge.

Jackson has ebbed and flowed across his two years as Chelsea's main striker, but it seems like he's set to jump ship, and Newcastle are prepared to engage in a transfer tussle that could rage into the dying embers of the window.

Chelsea hope to bank £60m for Jackson, a far cry far south of previous suggestions that the Blues would listen only to offers worth £80m, a figure linked to Aston Villa's own bid to sign the Senegal international.

Why Nicolas Jackson could star at Newcastle

When Chelsea signed Jackson from Villarreal for a fee in the ballpark of £30m two years ago, they landed one of the most promising up-and-comers in the business, with pace, power and potency, as advertised through his meteoric rise in La Liga.

The Premier League swallows many talented hopefuls into its maw, however. Jackson has struggled for consistency and accuracy in front of goal, but a return of 34 goal involvements from 65 matches in England's top flight is hardly a poor return.

And Jackson, praised for his "special" quality by journalist Rahman Osman, is far more than just a goalscorer. He's an energetic, interlinking focal point, and Howe would seem the perfect manager to will him into a superstar.

After all, when you've got legends such as Thierry Henry waxing lyrical over your potential, there's clearly something in that skill set that's worth writing home about.

There's little question that Jackson has a higher ceiling than Wissa, but given that Newcastle are in for multiple forwards, the two could operate together in contrasting harmony.

Looking at the respective nines' data from the recent Premier League campaign, it's clear to see how this would be so.

Wissa takes the crown as the superior finisher, and no mistake, but Jackson is more energetic and more creative, having averaged 1.1 and 0.9 key passes per game over his two years in the Premier League, as recorded by Sofascore, underscoring his value as a mobile forward eager to thread the frontline together.

Wissa is not Isak, of course, but he played his heart out for Brentford last season, producing goalscoring figures that were not all that dissimilar to the Scandinavian star's.

But, in spite of his sharp link-up play, Wissa lacks the dynamism and roundedness to thrive in Howe's system as a player of Isak's ilk. Many consider the Sweden international to be among the most complete strikers in the game.

Enter Jackson. The Chelsea man could reach levels unknown if placed into the Newcastle first team, using his high-speed running and his robustness to combine with Wissa, who has indeed shown himself capable of forging a strong on-field relationship with versatile forwards (Bryan Mbeumo, stand up).

Will Newcastle get it done? Howe needs a new striker or two, to be sure. And in Wissa and Jackson, the trophy-winning manager would have contrasting options to further his project, maybe even leaving the 2024/25 campaign remembered as a springboard toward success of the kind Tyneside has not seen for many, many years.