Nottingham Forest have seemingly found their form in the Premier League in recent weeks and now Steve Cooper could be set to strengthen his squad even further ahead of the second half of the season with a new potential transfer target identified.
What’s the latest?
According to Football Insider, Nottingham Forest are plotting a surprise move for Newcastle United striker Chris Wood this month.
As per the report, Cooper is keen to add another striker to his newly-built Premier League squad in January and Wood has been identified as the player who could be the perfect fit for the club in their pursuit to retain their top flight status.
It is claimed that Forest are exploring both permanent and loan options in order to acquire the services of the striker and Eddie Howe could be tempted to reach an agreement to free up his squad for potential new signings at St James’ Park.
Imagine him & Johnson
There is no doubt the Forest boss will be thrilled with the turnaround his team has had over the last few weeks and months with the side finally climbing out of the bottom three after a run of impressive form.
The Tricky Trees are now 13th in the top flight table after picking up 10 points in their last five outings and last week progressed to the Carabao Cup semi-finals when they beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on penalties in a heated clash at The City Ground.
As a result, Cooper will be desperate for his team to continue their momentum and further strengthening the forward line with a Premier League proven goal-scorer like Wood could be the final addition needed to secure a comfortable finish at the end of the season.
Over 508 career appearances, the £80k-per-week goal machine has scored 166 goals and registered 43 assists with a goal contribution every 156 minutes so far – proving that Wood has been a reliable and consistent goal threat over his career to date and could be a valuable asset to Nottingham Forest in their forward line.
The 31-year-old – who was hailed “tremendous” by Les Ferdinand – has found himself falling out of favour on Tyneside due to the arrival of Alexander Isak and the form Callum Wilson has been in over the season so far, but has been lavished with praise on numerous occasions by some of the biggest names in English football.
All-time Premier League top goal-scorer and Toon legend Alan Shearer claims the striker never “gives defenders a moment’s peace” and is “horrible” to play against:
“I like him, I like what he does for the team and he is the focal point for them He is very good at occupying two centre-halves.
“He is horrible to play against and he won’t give defenders a moment’s peace.”
The Forest boss could even form a fantastic attacking partnership between Wood and Brennan Johnson if the striker makes the move to Trentside this month as the young forward has been a consistent source of creativity in the attacking threat with 24 shot-creating actions and four goal-creating actions this season so far.
However, the team currently have the joint-second worst goal tally in the entire Premier League, so having a player like Wood who can consistently convert those chances missed in front of goal could drastically increase the goals scored by Forest over the second half of the season.
With that being said, if the Forest hierarchy could secure the signing of Wood this month it could be a great piece of business for the club and will give the manager another option to strengthen their attacking threat in order to dominate games and help to pick up the crucial points needed to remain in the Premier League next season.
from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/1uwTfky
via IFTTT