I’ll level with you at the top of this article – I’m not a Nottingham Forest supporter. I am, in fact, a West Bromwich Albion fan who has watched on from afar with admiration as the Reds have cemented themselves back in the Premier League in recent years after a long wait. They look as strong a unit right now as they have done at any stage since returning in 2022.
Much of that is to do with Chris Wood, who has moulded himself into a top-flight-savvy scorer of goals and a leader of the line possessing plenty of eye-catching attributes. A reliable figure, who is rarely struck down by injuries and whose nous of finding the net is something he has demonstrated over a sustained period of time, strikers like Wood, for teams like Forest, are akin to gold dust.
The thing is, if you returned to the year 2009 and informed me, a then albeit young Albion supporter, of the career that a then teenage Wood would proceed to have, I’d have been sceptical to say the least. Wood joined the Baggies academy after being brought over by Kiwi coach and ex West Brom employee Roger Wilkinson for a trial. He was in the first-team and making his Premier League debut within months.Wood was raw but clearly talent was there. He worked under Tony Mowbray and then Roberto Di Matteo, getting more chances in the Championship after relegation and, simultaneously, breaking into the New Zealand fold. Wood was a burly forward for someone so young but was getting to grips with the Championship. His only league goal for Albion was a memorable one when he thundered home a strike from distance in a win over Doncaster Rovers.Wood became a bit of a loan ranger after that, and those trips around the country – albeit with successes and failures alike – laid down a platform for his career and built up his tolerance levels of all sorts of experiences. He spent a fabulous six months at Birmingham City in which he scored 11 goals, including ten in the space of nine games – among those a first senior hat-trick and a 99th minute Europa League winner.
He moved permanently to Leicester in 2013 and helped to fire them to promotion before being sold to Leeds. Wood, staggeringly, scored 31 goals for club and country in 2016/17. Now in his mid-20s, scoring freely and constantly proving he could produce in all environments, he’d earned another crack at the Premier League. Burnley believed him worth of breaking their transfer record to recruit.
Wood spent four successive full campaigns in the top flight at Turf Moor and hit double figures in each of them, playing a crucial role in ensuring Sean Dyche’s side maintained their status year on year. While his Newcastle stint didn’t work out – still, they felt it worth spending £25m on him – Forest are now reaping the rewards of all that Wood has to offer as a talisman.
True, he wouldn’t have been a player whose arrival received hordes of fanfare when he joined on an initial loan basis, yet since Nuno Espirito Santo walked through the door we have seen the Kiwi at the height of his powers for club and country. It began largely with the hat-trick at Newcastle, and when a striker who has proven he can do it consistently over an extended period of time hits a purple patch, they can be difficult to keep quiet.
It’s no secret Forest were on the look-out for another centre forward in the summer, to compete with and complement, rather than replace, Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi. Those efforts to bring another forward – Omar Marmoush was among those targeted – didn’t come to fruition, but nobody at the City Ground are necessarily thinking ‘what if’ at this moment.
While Nigerian Awoniyi’s fitness problems have slowed his own progress – it’s easy to forget just how crucial he was under Steve Cooper in steering Forest to safety in 2023 – the dependence has rested on the shoulders of Wood, who has duly taken up the mantle.
This year, Wood has scored five goals in ten matches for club and country, including one at Chelsea before the international break and one, for New Zealand against Tahiti, during it. Still only 32 – that in itself is remarkable when you consider he has racked up just shy of 550 career appearances and played 83 times for his country, and says much about his fitness levels – he is clear at the top of his nation’s top goalscorer list. In time, he’ll be most capped.
At club level, Wood has enjoyed a better supply of service this season. While no other centre forwards arrived, Forest overhauled their creative talent pool. Ramon Sosa, Jota Silva, Elliott Anderson and James Ward-Prowse bring with them an arsenal of weapons from open play and from a dead ball. Coupled with the traits of Anthony Elanga, Morgan Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi, Wood is cashing in on the production line around him.
He gave a really interesting interview this break in which he outlined his intentions to play well into his 30s and even represent New Zealand at the 2030 World Cup, fitness and qualification permitting – and, frankly, based on how Wood has looked after himself to date, you wouldn’t put it past him.
“For me, football is my life,” Wood told the New Zealand Herald. “And I do want to play as long as possible – until I can’t really. That’s the mindset and the plan at the moment. Five to six years is probably what I’m looking at. I’d love to go to 38 but that’s obviously down to a lot of things; club, national team, fitness, everything like that – it all rolls into one. So you can have a plan but as 16 years have shown me in football, plans don’t always work out.
“Loosely, it (the target) is the 2030 World Cup. Most footballers, certainly me, work in terms of cycles so obviously the next World Cup is 2026. I want to play till then and then the cycle after that becomes more down to where I’m playing, who I’m playing for and things like that. I can’t perceive where I’m going to be (but) hopefully, I’m still playing in the Premier League.“That means I can still play for the national team and keep kicking on but you never know where football takes you. You can only look across the next couple of years at the moment, but long term the plan is to play until 2030.“I feel good, I feel as sharp as ever, as fit as ever. I’m ageing quite well, which is the nice thing about it. Recovery is the most important thing. Things have changed, everyone looks after their bodies, nutrition-wise, strength-wise, gym-wise so you can play as long as possible.
“Maybe 15-20 years ago players didn’t take care of themselves as much as possible, so that’s why you saw them dropping out of the league at 32, 33. The mentality has shifted and now you can play until you are 35 easily enough, as long as you take care of yourself and you are lucky with injuries. You are not done after 30 and people still perform. Age is just a number as long as you can still do everything on the pitch.”
The accumulation of transfer fees which clubs have forked out on Wood across his career – exceeding £60m – reflect the strides Wood has made over the course of his career and his priceless ability to stick the ball in the net. It’s led to a distinguished career packed with goals that I’ll admit I didn’t see coming as Wood embarked on his adventure – and one which ought to have many years still ahead of it.
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