Nottingham Forest have completed the signing of Newcastle striker Chris Wood on an initial loan deal; the deal could become permanent if certain criteria is met during the striker's spell at the City Groun; Wood says Forest is a 'massive club' that is 'going in the right direction'
Tuesday 31 January 2023 12:02, UK
Nottingham Forest have completed the signing of Newcastle striker Chris Wood on an initial loan deal.
Wood will spend the rest of the season on loan at the City Ground, with the deal having a conditional obligation to become permanent until the summer of 2024.
Forest will pay £15m to make the deal permanent in the summer.
Wood said: "It's a great feeling and I am very thankful to be here.
"Nottingham Forest is a massive club which I have come up against a number of times, but it's nice now to be able to pull on the red shirt and fight for the club.
"You can see the transition over the past 18 months and it's progressing in the right way. It's a project that's going in the right direction.
"It's a club looking up rather than anything else, it's going to take a lot of hard work, but it's a squad that's pulling together.
"I've been in this league a long time, so hopefully I'll bring a lot of experience to try and help the younger lads out and bring everybody together."
After joining from Burnley for £25m a year ago, Wood played 39 times for Newcastle, scoring five goals.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on Chris Wood's exit:
"We're hopefully planning to replace him, certainly from my side there was no thought of letting a player go and not replacing because I think that would leave us dangerously short of players, but there's no guarantees.
"I don't think we'll necessarily replace Chris with another Chris, if that makes sense.
"We're not necessarily looking for that type of player in the market, but we'll see what we can do with 11 days to go. It's not long, but it's got to be the right player, that's always so important in any transfer deal we look to do.
"We would have targets we would pursue for sure and we'll see how we go. I think it's important not just to have one, we have a pool of players that we like."
Who will be on the move this winter? The January transfer window opened on Sunday January 1, 2023 and closes at 11pm in England and midnight in Scotland on Tuesday January 31, 2023.
Keep up to date with all the latest transfer news and rumours in our dedicated Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports' digital platforms. You can also catch up with the ins, outs and analysis on Sky Sports News.
