Newcastle have moved on Chris Wood as he’s in the process of completing his move to Nottingham Forest today. An initial loan deal with an option to buy for £15m.
If it all goes through that means Newcastle will recoup a huge chunk of the £25m transfer fee they paid Burnley for the Kiwi just a year ago, which, considering his age is a huge deal for Newcastle.
However, that move does leave a striker-shaped hole in our squad, one which Eddie Howe seems keen to fill, saying this morning in his press conference that “There is no thought of letting a player go and not replacing him”.
Although his words did heavily suggest that there’s nobody immediately lined up to come in and fill the void, but work is ongoing behind the scenes. A report in The Chronicle has mentioned that Howe and his team are looking at a “pool of players” but face a race against time to get deals done. With under two weeks to go until the window slams shut, Newcastle certainly need to get moving.
With regards to what kind of player we’d be looking to replace Wood with, Howe said that they wouldn’t be looking for a like-for-like replacement. Howe told The Chronicle: “Hopefully if we are able to do a deal and bring a player in. For me, if you are going to bring a player in the forward area, you want a player that can excite people.
“They’re the players that can make a difference, can create or score. They are the hardest ones to find and the hardest ones to recruit. That is our task now with the remaining time we have left.”
While that doesn’t expressly say that Newcastle are going to break the bank again this window, you’d be hard-pressed to find a player who fits that category on the cheap, so there’s potential yet for a surprise arrival at Newcastle which will silence the critics bemoaning the club’s slow approach in this window.