With a goal tally like this, the Newcastle United attacker is less immediately reminiscent of Erling Haaland and more like a modern-day Shola Ameobi.
In 52 career games, William Osula has hit the back of the net a grand total of eight times.
So suggestions made by a former team-mate that Newcastle United’s £10 million summer signing is something of a ‘poor man’s Erling Haaland‘ are likely to raise a fair few eyebrows.
But, take the goals element aside, and Curtis Davies may have a point when he highlights a few attributes that both players have in common.
Osula, at 6ft 4ins, shares the same fearsome frame as Manchester City’s blonde bomber. When he gets up to full speed, the Denmark Under 21 international is a real powerhouse too, like a runaway train charging down the tracks at a lightning pace.
And while his end product clearly needs some work, those numbers should be contextualised by the fact that many of his appearances have come from the bench.
Not to mention the fact that Osula has been used out wide rather than as a centre-forward during much of his young career.
Newcastle sign William Osula from Sheffield United
“I’ve played with him and, attributes-wise, he’s got everything,” Davies, who shared a dressing room with Osula during his 2022/23 loan spell at Derby County, tells Sky Sports.
“With a coach like Eddie (Howe) there, who can nurture him and get him into that team, in the right environment and right way to push him forward, he could be a big signing come the end of the season.
“He’s big, he’s strong, he’s quick, he can score both feet, and he can go past you. I’m not going to disrespect it but he’s a bit like a poor man’s Haaland as such. He’s got all those attributes.
“Honestly, he can be that good, he just needs the fine-tuning of a coach like Eddie Howe.”
Osula is yet to make his official debut for Newcastle.
The former Copenhagen kid has been left on the bench for all three of The Magpies’ games so far in 2024/25, including the midweek EFL Cup triumph over Nottingham Forest with Howe opting to field a pretty-much full-strength side at the City Ground.
Opportunities for regular starts are likely to be limited going forward, too. Newcastle have one of the Premier League’s elite number nines in Alexander Isak, with Callum Wilson a superb deputy.
But Howe – alongside his assistant and ex-Sheffield United coach Jason Tindall – share Davies’ view that this is a footballer with serious potential, even if those rough edges need a little sanding down and smoothing out.
Eddie Howe really excited amid Erling Haaland comparison
“He’s a player I’ve known since JT’s time at Sheffield United,” Howe told BBC Sport in early August, admitting that Osula had been on the radar since he was a teenager in 2021.
“We’ve been tracking him for three years and he excites us. He has all the raw ingredients to become a great centre-forward. Good physical profile and good technical skills. There are areas of his game to develop but he’s coming to the right place to do that.
“It’s a very tricky situation. We have two outstanding centre-forwards (Isak and Wilson), and to find someone to complement them isn’t easy. As a young striker developing, he won’t have two better to learn from. He is coming to a healthy environment.
“Financially, it has to work for us as well because we can’t spend outrageous sums of money. It’s a good deal for us. We’ve got a lot of work to do with him, but he’s a really good character.”
Osula, according to another ex-Blades boss in Paul Heckingbottom, is a ‘fantastic talent’ who plays an aggression that is likely to endear him quickly to an impassioned Geordie fanbase, per the Northern Echo.
Newcastle did not secure a single marquee signing in the summer window, however, with Osula joining a number of squad-boosting options alongside Odysseas Vlachodimos, Lewis Hall and Lloyd Kelly.
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