Tom is a football journalist with over five years of experience, specialising in Premier League reporting, feature writing and transfer analysis, with particular expertise covering Liverpool and Everton.
His work has been featured in The Non-League Paper, Crawley Observer, Sussex Express and The Redmen TV, where he produced features, news and exclusive interviews across all levels of the game.
For Football FanCast, Tom has interviewed a number of respected figures from across football, including Ally McCoist, Philippe Senderos and Chris Waddle. Elsewhere, he has covered the National League South play-off final, Formula E’s London E-Prix, Crawley Town and Brighton & Hove Albion’s Under-21s.
Tom’s expertise lies in analysing transfer developments, explaining what they mean for clubs and supporters, and producing in-depth features on the biggest stories in football. Through years of covering Liverpool and Everton, he has developed an extensive understanding of Merseyside football, both clubs’ recruitment strategies and the issues that matter most to their supporters. He has also built strong relationships across the football industry that add valuable context to his reporting and analysis.
Tom also enjoys writing features on the broader challenges facing football, its clubs, players, governing bodies and, most importantly, supporters.
It’s been a tiresome summer for Newcastle United, but Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Liverpool before a 3-2 victory over West Bromwich Albion in the Carabao Cup showed that there could be light at the end of the tunnel.
Those at St James’ Park will be particularly pleased that new signing Bazoumana Toure found the back of the net on his official debut against West Brom, as their frontline enters a new era.
They’ll also be pleased with Yoane Wissa’s display against Liverpool. For the first time since he arrived last summer, the forward looked like the £55m star that Newcastle signed from Brentford.
That’s not to say it’s all good news, though. Wissa’s early form, combined with Will Osula’s progress in the last six months, has sparked plenty of concerns about Nick Woltemade.
yoane-wissa-newcastle-liverpool Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
The club’s record signing initially got off to an excellent start last season, scoring four goals in his first five Premier League games. Since then, however, he’s scored just four league goals and looks to have fallen to third in the pecking order behind Wissa and Osula.
It’s damning for the Magpies, who splashed out £69m to sign the German and replace Alexander Isak just 12 months ago. But in many ways, rumours that their record signing could be heading for the exit door before he’s even truly started his second season at the club would just about sum things up.
Nick Woltemade requests Newcastle exit
After falling down the pecking order under new manager Matthias Jaissle, Football FanCast understands that Woltemade has requested to leave Newcastle ahead of transfer deadline day.
The German’s request comes as a direct response to interest from Serie A giants Napoli. The Italians have made contact with Newcastle about a potential loan deal, but have an issue with paying Woltemade’s €4.5m (£3.8m) salary. As such, the forward wants the Magpies to cover a percentage of his wages to make a deal happen.
nick-woltemade-newcastle REUTERS/Lee Smith
It’s a bold request to say the least. Whether PIF accept remains to be seen. Given that Woltemade is now third-choice and has requested to leave to join Napoli, however, there may not be many factors other than money standing between the German and the Serie A side.
Having already lost Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes this summer, the exit door at St James’ Park may well swing open one more time before the window closes.
Meanwhile, if Woltemade’s final Newcastle appearance turns out to be their victory over West Brom in midweek, then it will be clear that he didn’t do enough to earn his place ahead of Wissa or Osula.