While Newcastle United have enjoyed a fruitful turnaround following the takeover from the Saudi-led PIF last year with a raft of sensible transfers, the deal to bring Chris Wood to St. James’ Park has proved to be an early blunder.
The Magpies were the biggest spenders in Europe in January as the new owners wasted no time in investing heavily to secure Premier League survival.
One such name that arrived in the winter window was that of Wood, who joined from Burnley for £25m.
The centre-forward had only managed to score three times in the first half of the Premier League campaign, with former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor calling the move ‘strange’, insisting that if he was a Newcastle fan he’d be wanting ‘more’.
Turning 31 in December, Wood’s best days are perhaps behind him, having reached double figures in the top-flight for goals in each of the four seasons prior to last term.
The 6 ft 3 in forward netted just twice in 17 appearances following his move to Tyneside, finishing with five league goals for the campaign, some way short of his career-best 14 during the 2019/20 season.
In fact, only one of his goals for the Toon came from open play, with his winner against Wolves coming from the spot.
The 68-cap New Zealand international regularly failed to impress and was called out by one-time Leeds striker Noel Whelan for his ‘static’ display in the 5-1 loss to Tottenham towards the end of last season.
Despite signing a two-and-a-half-year contract until the summer of 2024 it always seemed like Wood’s arrival was just a short-term fix to cover the injury worries surrounding Callum Wilson.
That’s a theory that was somewhat proven by PIF’s decision to spend a club-record £63m on Alexander Isak in the summer.
It has restricted Wood to just one start this term, which came in the EFL Cup, finding the net against Tranmere Rovers.
With limited minutes, chances to improve on a poor goal return at present will be few and far between for the £9m-rated target man, and while he is likely to continue as an option off the bench, it is hard to see him having much of an impact moving forward.
