The striker endured a nightmare first year on Tyneside, missing the first half of the season through injury and then having to settle for a bit-part role once he was available to play as he struggled for form and fitness.
Having forked out £55m to sign the 29-year-old from Brentford, Newcastle will have hoped for an awful lot more from the experienced striker, who started just four Premier League games in black and white and only scored three goals in all competitions.
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But Howe says he saw flashes of promise from the striker at the back end of the campaign, and he’ll now be watching on with real interest as his frontman kicks off his World Cup campaign for DR Congo against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal tonight (6pm).
After a stop-start season, Howe believes playing in the summer tournament will do Wissa the world of good.
And he’s hoping it will give his striker a head-start ahead of returning to Newcastle for pre-season and what the head coach hopes and believes will be a much more successful second campaign at St James’ Park for Wissa – and some of last season’s other signings.
Anthony Elanga, who’s at the World Cup with Sweden, is another who will be hoping to dramatically improve on a challenging first year, while Nick Woltemade had something of a rollercoaster debut campaign in the Premier League.
But Wissa was the real disappointment of those who arrived last summer.
“You saw with Yoane in a number of his appearances towards the end of the season, there’s flashes of real quality in his game,” said Newcastle’s boss.
“He hasn’t had a run of games. It’s been difficult to give him that, especially with Will Osula’s form towards the tail end of the season.
“But the World Cup will be a great showcase and opportunity for him to build his fitness and his confidence, to then come back to us and hopefully help us.
“The guys we signed last summer haven’t quite fully shown what they’re capable of yet. In my opinion, they will. Next season will be a big season for them all.”
