Callum Wilson left Newcastle United after five years last summer, and Eddie Howe said the split carried "a lot of pain" even if it was the right time for both sides. Wilson returns to St James' Park as an opposition player on Sunday afternoon for the first time since leaving.
Howe On Wilson's Exit
Howe said the move came after Newcastle and Wilson reached a mutual agreement not to extend his contract beyond the end of last season. "It was difficult for Callum," he said, adding, "It was probably the right time for him to go. Although there's always pain in that; there's pain for us to let him go because he's such a positive member of the squad."
He added: "So a lot of pain in that departure - a lot of emotion from both sides." Howe also said, "Callum wanted to be the focal point number nine; he wanted to play every game." At Newcastle, he had been behind Alexander Isak and was not getting the minutes he wanted.
Wilson's West Ham Role
The 34-year-old has settled into a different fight at West Ham, where he has scored six goals this season and had to win over Nuno Espirito Santo's trust at the start of the campaign. He has already delivered late winning goals against Tottenham and Everton, and he thought he had scored an equaliser against Arsenal last weekend before VAR ruled it out for a foul in the build-up.
West Ham went into the Newcastle match in the relegation zone, with two more matches left to close a two-point gap to 17th-placed Tottenham Hotspur. A win over Newcastle would lift them above Tottenham and out of the drop zone, which puts Wilson back at St James' Park with immediate stakes on both sides of the field.
St James' Park Return
Howe said he still holds Wilson in high regard. "The psychology of Callum is - and this is why he's had so much success - that he is the best striker to play in any environment, and that's the credit to him and how he thinks," he said. Before that return, he added: "I just really respect him and I want his career, as long as he's playing, to be really successful."
He also warned that the contest would be direct. "Whenever you're competing against each other, you'll do everything, and he'll be doing everything to hurt us and we'll be doing everything to stop him," Howe said. For Newcastle, the first meeting with Wilson at St James' Park as an opposition player is less about nostalgia than the sharper question of whether he can help West Ham take a step out of danger.
