Fighting for a foothold in the Premier League after two miserable decades below the top flight and facing serious questions about their ability to avoid instant relegation, the All Whites skipper did not seem like the answer.
Sure, goals were a big problem. Forest had scored fewer than any other team in the league. But the Kiwi frontman had mustered only two in 18 appearances for Newcastle United; even as an influx of Saudi investment had propelled them to lofty heights. Forest fans lusted for a lethal marksman to fire them to safety. Wood felt like a pea shooter.
“It’s a great feeling and I am very thankful to be here… it’s a project that’s going in the right direction,” he told the club website upon signing. Platitudinous padding from a boring transfer. Or so it seemed. We just couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
The reversal in fortunes over the past 22 months is inconceivable. Wood was unwanted and unloved on arrival, but is suddenly nearing legendary status; a rocket-like trajectory that closely tracks the club’s own giddying ascent to the top four of the Premier League.
Fans now sing his name at the top of their lungs and the puns write themselves. “Chris Wood’s on fire” (to the tune of Europop classic Freed from Desire) almost shattered eardrums as the All Whites captain scored two in a recent 3-1 rout of rivals Leicester City, one of his former clubs.
To truly appreciate this affinity is to understand the unique and prolonged suffering of Forest’s supporters. The club won two European Cups in 1979 and 1980 under the great Brian Clough. A proud but eminently provincial club was transformed into one of the most successful and celebrated names in world football.
Nottingham Forest fans have had a tough time since their glory days in the late 70s and early 80s. Photo / Photosport
Nottingham is called the “City of Legends” because of folk outlaw Robin Hood. Many residents will tell you the moniker applies equally to legendary players Trevor Francis, Peter Shilton, John McGovern and the merry band of brothers who brought global focus and untold footballing glory to the banks of the River Trent. But legends are historical. Forest fell apart.
The club began yo-yoing between the top division and the second tier in the 1990s, culminating in a 1999 relegation that heralded an interminable exile. Nobody realised it at the time but Forest were to become a footnote of history; the answer to pub quiz questions with unfortunate punchlines. An abject 23-year absence from the world’s top football league included financial ruin and the serious risk of total extinction. Forest were relegated again in 2005 and spent three despairing years as the only European Cup winner outside the top two divisions of their domestic leagues.
Chris Wood described Forest as a “massive club” in his first news conference as the new loan signing. He can only have been referring to those two European Cups and the two symbolic stars that adorn the famous tree crest to honour them. For older supporters, they are a distant memory. For most they are, well, just a legend. The only aspiration for Wood and his contemporaries was to avoid relegation – to keep Forest afloat in the Premier League and stave off the risk of another death spiral into the footballing abyss.
At first, Wood did not pull up any trees. He struggled to break into the first team as a loan player and scored just one goal in his maiden season. But what a goal it was. He came off the bench to bag an 84th-minute equaliser against the free-spending champions Manchester City. He scored against the rich to save the poor. Nobody knew it yet, but a new legend was born.
Forest survived in that first season back in the Premier League, finishing in 16th place. Chris Wood’s loan agreement included a clause which obliged Forest to sign him permanently. Many supporters grumbled that his $32 million fee could have been invested in more exotic talents. He continued to play a bit part role until popular boss Steve Cooper was fired in December 2023.
Chris Wood has seized the opportunity given to him by Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Photo / Photosport
New manager Nuno Espirito Santo has rebuilt the team around Wood’s prowess. Lead striker Taiwo Awoniyi has spent much of the last year plagued by injuries and Wood has seized the starring role. Only Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and City’s Erling Haaland, the world’s top striker, have scored more league goals since. A Boxing Day hat-trick against former club Newcastle stands out as a highlight, even amid a glittering goals record worth five times his transfer fee.
Now Forest has fallen in love with Wood – and it’s not just for his goals. He is humble and workman-like. He brings beauty to the banality of sneering labels like “old-fashioned centre forward”. Wood is an immovable rock at the pivot of a fast-paced team which is deadly on the break and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
“Without my teammates, I wouldn’t be scoring,” he said, with trademark modesty, after netting a recent brace. Just a few days earlier he’d journeyed all the way back from international duty with New Zealand.
This weekend, Wood scored yet again in a 3-0 romp against West Ham. Forest sit third in the Premier League table – modern day giants Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are all below them. A generation of supporters have never known anything like it. And Wood is now just two goals away from becoming the club’s all-time top Premier League goal-scorer. The stuff of historical legend is suddenly a tangible, dizzying reality. Little wonder that he has a new nickname in the City of Legends: Robin Wood.
