Newcastle United correspondent for the Daily Mail, Craig Hope, has tempered the reports that Nottingham Forest are set to sign Chris Wood. The Reds were reportedly on the cusp of landing the striker last night but things might not be as close as anticipated.
The 31-year-old talisman signed for Newcastle for £25 million during January 2022. He proved a very useful signing for the Magpies as they managed to pull themselves clear of the relegation zone under the stewardship of Eddie Howe.
One year on and Newcastle now have bigger targets to aim for. The team are firmly in the mix to challenge for the top four and as a result, Wood has fallen down the pecking order behind Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak.
Despite being behind the two main strikers, Wood has still played a fair bit of football. He’s started four times this season and actually featured in all but one of Newcastle’s fixtures during 2022/23.
Wood knows where the back of the net is in the Premier League too. In 189 games across spells with Burnley and the Magpies, he’s bagged 54 goals and knows what it takes to win a fight against relegation.
Forest are in desperate need of a new striker. They have lost Taiwo Awoniyi for two months through injury; whilst Steve Cooper doesn’t seem to trust Sam Surridge or Emmanuel Dennis as regular starters.
Hope has tempered Wood to Forest but it should still happen
There isn’t usually any smoke without fire and several other reports have claimed that the move is close. Forest will hope it can be done by midday tomorrow, allowing him to play against Bournemouth.
It could be a decent addition to the Forest ranks. He will bring a focal point into the team and he should be capable of creating lots of space for Morgan Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson.
It’s impossible to judge Wood on how many goals he scores. Ultimately his game has other attributes and on loan for the remainder of the season, this deal seems ideal.
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