Brentford boss now finally opens up on what happened in lead up to Yoane Wissa departure | OneFootball

Keith Andrews, the Brentford boss, has now finally opened up on what happened in the lead up to the Yoane Wissa departure for Newcastle United.

Having scored 19 Premier League goals last season, the most of any striker who didn’t take penalties, a huge blow for the West London club when Yoane Wissa left.

Brentford had refused to sell the DR Congo international.

Yoane Wissa desperate to sign for Newcastle United and reacted to that by initially refusing to join in with group training.

However, unlike Alexander Isak, after a brief time away from the group, Yoane Wissa returned to training with the rest of the Brentford players.

When Yoane Wissa then left on deadline day, Brentford releasing a statement (see below) that pointedly didn’t wish their departing player all the best, despite a great contribution from Wissa over the course of four years.

Ahead of this weekend’s match against Chelsea, Brentford boss Keith Andrews asked about the Yoane Wissa Deadline Day move to Newcastle – 12 September 2025:

“All along I very much expected Yoane to stay.

“Up until the very last press conference before we played Sunderland, it was nowhere near a move.

“That is pretty much where it was and I wanted Yoane to stay.

“I didn’t really want to lose that amount of goals out of the building but at the same time I was very understanding of the way this club works and the medium to long-term future of the club is very important.”

Brentford official statement on Yoane Wissa – 1 September 2025:

‘Yoane Wissa has joined Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee.

The forward signed from French club Lorient in August 2021 and scored 49 goals in 149 appearances for Brentford.

In his first season, Wissa scored 10 goals in all competitions and then added another seven in 2022/23.

Wissa missed part of the 2023/24 campaign at the Africa Cup of Nations with DR Congo, where his nation were beaten by South Africa on penalties in the third-place play-off, but hit his best patch of form in a Brentford shirt on his return.

Wissa ended that season with a run of eight goals and two assists in 15 games helping him to become the Bees’ top scorer.