Nottingham Forest Fans react to news of Newcastle United striker Chris Wood set to sign

Nottingham Forest Fans have been reacting to news that Newcastle United striker Chris Wood is set to sign.

Forest are set to be without £17m forward Taiwo Awoniyi for a couple of months after he picked up an injury in the recent 1-0 win over Southampton.

Awoniyi scored the winner in that game and took his total to five goals since his summer arrival from Union Berlin.

As the Forest striker is not set to be back until sometime in March at the earliest, The Athletic and many others in the media have reported that Steve Cooper has identified Chris Wood as his favoured target and a loan deal is imminent with Forest having approached Newcastle United.

The only disputed thing across the various media is whether or not there will be an option / obligation to buy at the end of the half season loan.

This seemingly imminent Chris Wood move, is very similar to what happened 12 months ago.

Callum Wilson picked up what looked a season ending injury v Man Utd five days before the January 2022 transfer window opened and with Newcastle United deep in relegation trouble and no other Premier League level strikers in the squad, due to the neglect / incompetence of Ashley and Bruce, Eddie Howe and the NUFC owners forced to bite the bullet and pay Burnley’s £25m release clause, or else they would never have allowed Chis Wood to leave.

Many of the negative over the top comments from Forest fans below, sadly mirror those of many Newcastle supporters.

Nobody claims that Wood’s true market value was £25m a year ago BUT Eddie Howe needed an experienced Premier League striker who could hit the ground running instantly, nobody else in the Premier league willing mid-season to sell their first choice strikers.

At Burnley, Chris Wood was used as the striker to get crosses into in the box and score goals, all four full seasons he scored double figures in the Premier League.

Yes, Chris Wood should have maybe score two or three more goals last season based on the limited chances that came his way, however, Eddie Howe used him in a very different way to how he’d played for Burnley. Chris Wood dropping deep, working hard, linking up play, defending, help getting others into goalscoring positions, drifting out wide to make space etc etc.

In his 15 Premier League starts for Newcastle United last season, Chris Wood helped Newcastle pick up an astonishing 29 points.

He was always going to be a short-term first choice option for Newcastle United and playing a key role in helping NUFC avoid relegation, Chris Wood more than paid back the £25m he cost.

With both Wilson and Isak now fit and ahead of him, it could very well make sense for Chris Wood now to go and get regular football elsewhere, potentially helping to free up space and wages at Newcastle United for an incoming January signing. Perhaps a young versatile up and coming attacking player who can play across the front line…?

Nottingham Forest fans react to news that Chris Wood is set to sign, commenting via their LTLG message board:

‘I Wood not bother.’

‘Trust Cooper. If he thinks he would be a good addition then so be it.’

‘Can hold the ball up. Decent finisher. Decent in the air. Threat from set pieces. Gives defences something else to think about (in combination with Johnson’s pace and MGW’s flair).

It’s a loan. Newcastle paid £25m for him recently.

Who else we getting for a small fee who’s going to be better than him, not just in terms of reputation, but the qualities he has which our strike force currently lacks.

He will be our Davis in the Prem signing. He’s not exciting, his recent record is meh, but he’s got qualities that we don’t currently have, and we’ll use him in a way which benefits the wider team. Individually he’ll provide enough of a contribution to help us win more points than we otherwise would have.’

‘I think we should bring Haaland in instead, I mean were 13th in the table so couldn’t possibly use a player that’s involved in every matchday squad with a team in 4th place.’

‘Changed my mind. Wouldn’t be able to play for us against Newcastle in the League Cup final. Avoid.’

‘We aren’t scoring enough goals but that’s not due to the lack of potential goal scorers in our team

We need a focal point up top to bring in the goal threats from wide and behind as well as the odd goal up top. It wasn’t always pretty with Awoniyi but he was starting to look effective. Wood could do that job for us. This makes a lot of sense to me

Taiwo and SSS inexperienced at this level. Wood bags of it

Scarpa, MGW, Lingard, Jonno – all can put in a good ball. Wood – good aerial threat

We might now need to make more moves in Jan due to injuries. The money pit isn’t bottomless and we’ve seen a number of potential deals mentioned based on loans and “options to buy”. Wood – a short term commitment with a huge upside if it works and we stay up

Would I rather we were in for 22 years old Brazilian wonder striker Goaldinho on a 23 year deal? Sure. But this sounds a pretty good option to me for the rest of this campaign

You lot can’t see the Wood for the Tricky Trees!’

‘TBF what do Eddie Howe or Steve Cooper know about football?

Personally I’d go for Haaland.’

‘My issue with Chris Wood is over his speed – he’s a big old unit and we are scoring goals on the break – can’t imagine with BJ breaking down the flanks that Chris wood would be able to get in the box from half way before the full-time whistle goes.’

‘People are harsh on his goal record.

He got into double figures every season in the most dour team in the league. You could argue his Newcastle record is bad but they have probably outgrown him very quickly.’

‘I can see the headline now

“More Wood in the Forest”

‘Yeah, certainly don’t want us to be lumbered with this one.’

‘Newcastle paid 25m less than a year ago for him,they’ll be looking for their money back if we really want him. No thanks.’

‘I think we need someone taller at corners, someone charging in on crosses, and someone who can hold the ball up, especially later in games. Depends on what the alternatives are but I can see why we’d go for this.’

‘Forest look better with a focal point, Wood is a good focal point.

It is easy to pick out his goalscoring record from this and last season, but he hit double figures for Burnley every year before that.

If we can get him on loan (which I doubt) I think he would be a decent option, especially away from home. If it is a permanent deal, I’d be looking at other targets.’

‘People suggesting he wouldn’t fit into our approach for signings seem to ignore the fact he’s big, built like a sh.thouse and works hard. He’s every bit the sort of target Forest might look at.

We’d need to get more crosses in from wide areas though to make full use of him.’

‘I don’t think he’s a bad player at all but I don’t think he suits how we play and therefore he would probably look like an expensive mistake.

Of course, we may be looking to change our style of play to gain more points away from home.’

‘Many would say we have enough dead wood at the club already we don’t need a live one.’

‘I don’t get why Wood would come here to be a ‘plan b’ option off the bench when that’s pretty much what he is at Newcastle. I think any striker worth their salt is going to want to come here to start games.’

‘He would be a very good signing for our away games as we struggle to keep the ball and we could use him as an outlet.’

‘I actually think this would be a good signing.’

‘Those folk that are moaning, tell me who else is available that Cooper and his team have over looked?

I’ll tell you what, we need somebody to bully defences, especially at corners and set pieces. Need some aggression up front, he’ll get stuck in, will Wood.

Cool yer jets, it’s only a loan.’

‘I’ve no problem with this as a loan signing personally. If we were signing him permanently for anything like what Newcastle paid for him then that would be a different story, but that isn’t the case. Ultimately if Cooper wants him, then I trust his judgement.’

‘Not massively enthusiastic about it but it’s a loan so meh and what you can say about his time at Newcastle last season is 1, they didn’t lose many games he started in and 2, the two goals he did score for them last season earned them 6 points.’

‘Double figures for Burney in 4 seasons in the prem and then he moves to newcastle after getting 3 in 17. That’s still one more goal than Weghorst who has gone to Man Utd.

In seasons gone by it was always Wood or Barnes scoring every week.’