Yoane Wissa is the £55 million Newcastle United forward who almost didn’t arrive.

After waiting through most of the summer before finally sealing his switch from Brentford, the Magpies’ new No. 9 nearly saw his dream collapse due to a paperwork slip.

As reported earlier today, Wissa forgot a signature on his documents, which only got fixed less than half a minute before the 9pm deadline for filing.

Craig Hope has shed extra light on the chaos in his Newcastle Confidential piece for the Daily Mail, adding some dramatic flair to the episode.

We rarely like to copy another journalist’s style, but in this case, Hope’s description is hard to top.

“Moments before 9pm on deadline night, Yoane Wissa stepped out onto the balcony by Newcastle United’s training pitches. Under the autumn sky, he phoned his wife and children, celebrating the dawn of a new chapter.

“But suddenly, shouts and the slam of doors erupted inside. ‘Yoane! Yoane! Yoane!’ came the frantic cries echoing through the halls of the training complex. One more document still needed his name. It was 8:58pm. With the Premier League’s cutoff at 9pm, he remained a Brentford player.

“The file was pulled up on a mobile. He scrawled his signature across the screen. His agent, who had ‘run like mad’ to track him down, explained the urgency. Newcastle staff instantly uploaded it and sent it to the league.

“Wissa was ‘close to tears’. His lawyer, reps and club officials were said to be ‘f***ing nervous!’ Hearts pounded, hands shook. At Brentford’s HQ, executives were equally on edge – they wanted their £50m.

“At 8:59 the email went through. At 8:59 the Premier League’s system logged it as received. Yoane Wissa was a Newcastle player. ‘He celebrated like he’d won the Champions League!’ recalled one witness.”

He hasn’t lifted that trophy yet, but Wissa will now get his chance in the competition as Newcastle’s latest recruit.

Wissa understood this was probably his last real shot at joining a Champions League club, with the striker turning 29 today and edging closer to the twilight years of his career.

There’s plenty of talk about his age, though players now stay at the top into their 30s, so it shouldn’t be overblown. Still, with his price tag, his age will always be mentioned when judging if Newcastle paid too much, but the deal had to be done.