Chris Wood – Sold too soon? | OneFootball

Chris Wood was signed from Burnley in January 2022.

I may regularly call our home ‘Gallowgate’ in articles.

However, this is one man who certainly wouldn’t have deserved to be sent to the Gallows….

A canny bloke and good player who came to help us out in an hour of need.

Chris Wood arriving with Newcastle United staring another relegation from the Premier League in the face.

Eyebrows were raised with the £25m outlay at the time. Chris Wood had been a regular scorer at his career but the fee was on the steepish side.

Needs must. As Callum Wilson was the only Premier League level striker at the club at the time and he’d got badly injured on 27 December 2021 in a 1-1 draw against Man U, set to miss the rest of the season. Indeed, Burnley were refusing to sell their number one striker, unless Newcastle paid that £25m release clause in Wood’s contract.

The workmanlike Chris Wood came in and made a massive contribution in saving United from the drop. Indeed, it was his former club Burnley who were the ones to end up taking the third relegation spot that season.

A lot of Newcastle United fans had it in for Kiwi Chris, even before he had kicked a ball for our club.

After that excellent first half season (Newcastle United picked up 29 points in the 15 Premier League games that Chris Wood started), the striker was then part of the squad who achieved a fourth place Premier League place in the 2022/23 season, that ensured we claimed a Champions League spot. He made 18 EPL appearances in the first half of that season, mainly off the bench, starting just four.

In January 2023, a 31 year old Chris Wood then went on an initial loan to Nottingham Forest, with a commitment that a £15m fee would be paid for a permanent Forest move in summer 2023.

Picking up a thigh injury not long after moving to the City Ground, Chris Wood only played 376 minutes of league football for Forest on loan.

However, since the deal became permanent and he returned to full fitness, he has since thrived at Nottingham Forest.

Although we received a decent £15m fee for a striker who will turn 33 this December, I now believe we sold Chris Wood prematurely.

With only two strikers in Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, we didn’t qualify for Europe last season.

With Newcastle United struggling to score goals this season and seemingly having no one able to hold the ball up in attack, I wonder how many people wish Big Chris was still at the Toon.

Since December 2023, only Erling Haaland and Cole Palmer have scored more Premier League goals than Chris Wood.