This is really good from Chris Wood on Newcastle United – Bang on the money | OneFootball

Chris Wood comes to St James’ Park on Sunday.

The striker arriving with Nottingham Forest and both he and his club having a great season.

Chris Wood failed to score when Newcastle won 3-1 at the City Ground in the Premier League this season, whilst he remained an unused sub as United won in the League Cup to set them on their way to an eventual appearance at Wembley.

Last season, Chris Wood missing Newcastle’s Premier League win at the City Ground, however, at St James’ Park on Boxing Day 2023, Wood grabbing a hat-trick as Forest won 3-1.

Ahead of Sunday’s match, Chris Wood has been talking about his decision to join Newcastle United in January 2022 and then how it worked out:

“I could see the project that Newcastle United were trying to build.

“It was an opportunity to elevate my game and potentially take me to the next step, if I went in there and scored goals and done well.

“It didn’t work out perfectly…but it worked out well.

“We stayed up, done extremely well and then we got Champions League the next year.

“I’m happy to be a part of that and the rebuild of Newcastle, where they have gone on to is fantastic.”

I think this is bang on the money from Chris Wood, perfectly summing up how it played out for him at Newcastle United.

We have this bizarre situation where the very same people (both outsiders and certain Newcastle United fans) who said Eddie Howe buying Chris Wood for £25m in January 2022 was an embarrassing disgrace, now those exact same fans and outsiders claiming that Eddie Howe selling Chris Wood in June 2023 for £15m was ALSO an embarrassing disgrace!

Sequence of events that led to Eddie Howe and Newcastle United signing Chris Wood on 12 January 2022:

Mike Ashley had ran Newcastle United into the ground over a period of a decade and a half.

The 2021/22 campaign was for sure going to end up as Ashley’s third relegation in 13 Premier League seasons that had kicked off under his ownership.

With the ‘help’ of Steve Bruce, Newcastle United without a single win and certainties for relegation, until 7 October 2021, Saudi Arabia PIF and the Reubens bought the club.

Steve Bruce then belatedly sacked and Eddie Howe appointed on 8 November 2021.

Eddie Howe getting the squad properly fit and focused and performances clearly improving, however, still struggling to put a decent run of wins together. Matters not helped by Ashley and Bruce seeing Newcastle United having only one Premier League level striker and when Callum Wilson picked up a serious injury on 27 December 2021, signing a striker had become an absolute necessity in January 2022.

No club wants to lose their main striker in the middle of a season and so this was always going to be a massive ask for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United.

They ended up signing 30 year old Chris Wood for £25m and were ridiculed for it, by pretty much all outsiders, as well as large numbers of Newcastle United fans.

Eddie Howe and Newcastle United were actually only able to buy Chris Wood, due to him having a £25m release clause in his contract, Burnley were desperate to hang on to him.

The rest as they say, is history.

Eddie Howe overseeing an astonishing transformation, as his January signings and the players he inherited, came together to not only avoid relegation, but somehow produce the third best form of all Premier League clubs across the entire 19 games of the second half of that 2021/22 Premier League season.

Chris Wood made 17 PL appearances, starting 15 and off the bench in another two, scoring two goals.

Many of those Newcastle United fans and outsiders who had ridiculed the decision of Eddie Howe to sign Chris Wood, then used those two goals as ‘proof’ of what a poor signing he had supposedly been.

On the other hand, other Newcastle supporters understood that Eddie Howe had used Chris Wood as a key part of that survival but in a very unselfish role that saw Wood defend from the front, as well as help other NUFC players to score goals, with his movement and taking defenders away out wide etc.

These more rational fans pointed to the key fact, that in his 15 PL starts that season, Chris Wood helped United pick up a remarkable 29 points.

I think all parties understood that Chris Wood playing as number one striker was always going to be for a very limited time, unless potentially relegation had happened.

Alexander Isak was signed for a club record £59m plus £4m potential future add-ons in August 2022, with Callum Wilson having returned to full fitness to be number two striker, Chris Wood finding himself third choice.

Newcastle United finished fourth that 2022/23 season, Isak and Wilson scoring 28 goals between them in a combined 38 PL starts and 15 PL sub appearances.

Chris Wood only played 437 Premier League minutes in that 2022/23 season for Newcastle United, four PL starts, 14 PL sub appearance, scoring two goals.

Halfway through that 2022/23 season, Chris Wood moved on the initial loan to the City Ground, fair to say Forest fans were less than excited about the signing of a now 31 year old striker and one Premier League goal in seven PL appearances (five starts and two as a sub) before injury brought his season to an end, did little to change that. When Chris Wood moved to Forest in January 2023, I don’t recall any Newcastle United fans saying this was a poor decision, quite the opposite.

Thirty two Premier League goals since then, have for sure changed the opinion of many Forest fans, 18 PL goals already this season, to go with the 14 from last season – which included of course the hat-trick at St James’ Park.

Good luck to him, Chris Wood did a great job for Newcastle United, NUFC banked £15m of the initial £25m outlay, now he is showing again what a decent striker he is, with his goals and performances at Forest.

Chris Wood is proving what a great eye Eddie Howe has for signing players!

IMAGO/Sportimage

However… now I see that a number of Newcastle United fans are still using Chris Wood to beat Eddie Howe.

Apparently the decision to not keep Wood, is yet more clear ‘proof’ that Eddie Howe doesn’t know what he is doing and why he is supposedly holding Newcastle back.

I would put my last penny on these Newcastle United fans who are slagging off Eddie Howe for having sold Chris Wood, are the exact same ones who slagged off Eddie Howe and NUFC when Wood was signed in January 2022, also the same ones who didn’t give Chris Wood any credit for what he did for Newcastle in that first half season playing for us, and certainly they weren’t saying it was a stupid move when Wood was let go in January 2023.

The fact that Chris Wood has continued to do well at Forest, is simply for me yet another reminder of what a great judge of players Eddie Howe is.

You can only really start with one centre-forward at a time and Eddie Howe signed an even better one in Alexander Isak.

It is simply embarrassing for any Newcastle United fans to use Chris Wood to have a go at Eddie Howe.

It actually perfectly sums up how some NUFC fans change their opinions continually, based on the week by week situation.

Earlier this season when Isak missed some matches with a broken toe, some numpties even saying how much better it would have been if we had kept Chris Wood, rather than sign an ‘injury prone’ Alexander Isak. Totally ignoring the fact that Isak was named in 109 matchday La Liga squads out of a maximum possible 114, in his three full seasons at Real Sociedad before signing on at NUFC.

Chris Wood was a great signing by Eddie Howe for Newcastle United and he also moved him on at the right time as well, the right time for all parties.