Nick Woltemade of Newcastle United celebrates scoring his team’s first goal. (Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

Newcastle labelled 'idiots' for completing summer transfer

Originally posted on Caught Offside | By John Menzies | Last updated Sep 29, 2025 8:33 AM ET

Newcastle have not had the best start to the season, and that continued with an agonising 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday. The summer situation with Alexander Isak meant that Eddie Howe has had a lot of deal with, although there have been some positive signs with his replacement.

Nick Woltemade scored Newcastle’s goal against Arsenal, making it two goals in two home Premier League matches for the striker signed in the summer from Stuttgart. Fans in the north East have taken to their new number 27, although it is safe to say that the feeling is not shared by those in his native Germany.

Newcastle criticised for signing Nick Woltemade from Stuttgart

Newcastle have previously been slammed for adhering to Stuttgart’s reported €90m asking for Woltemade, and as per SportBild (via Sport Witness), they have now been branded as “idiots” by former Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“I’ll be honest. When this story with Woltemade and then the demand from Stuttgart came up, I, as well as Uli, Herbert Hainer, Jan Dreesen, and Max Eberl, said – folks, we’re slowly getting to a level that I simply don’t find acceptable anymore.

“We shouldn’t fulfil every demand to make someone happy, especially the financiers at VfB Stuttgart. I can only congratulate those in Stuttgart for finding – I’ll use quotation marks here – an idiot who paid that much money. Because we certainly wouldn’t have done that in Munich!”

Rummenigge is the latest person associated with Bayern to come out and criticise Newcastle and/or Woltemade over the summer transfer deal. The player had appeared destined to join the reigning Bundesliga champions earlier in the window, so there is perhaps a feeling of sour grapes that he ended up at St James’ Park instead.

This article first appeared on Caught Offside and was syndicated with permission.

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