Former Newcastle United co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi still believes the club’s deal to sign Chris Wood in January 2022 represented a success.
The 2022 January transfer window was a turning point for Newcastle United following PIF’s takeover.
Ghodoussi and wife Amanda Staveley were the public-facing figures of the Newcastle United ownership and they helped oversee a brilliant transfer window.
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The likes of Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes arrived to help transform Eddie Howe’s side and lift them out of the relegation battle.
All three of those remain key players for the club, whereas Wood left a year later after starting only 21 games.
Newcastle paid £25million to sign Wood from Burnley and while that did seem expensive at the time, Ghodoussi believes it was the right thing to do.
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Mehrdad Ghodoussi praises Newcastle United’s deal to sign Chris Wood
Ghodoussi, who left the club alongside Staveley in 2024, was speaking alongside his wife at the World Sports Summit out in Dubai.
He reflected on Newcastle’s recruitment during the early stages of the PIF era and brought up Wood’s name specifically.
Ghodoussi appeared to confirm the long-running theory among supporters that part of Newcastle’s thinking in signing Wood from Burnley was to weaken what was then a relegation rival.
He also believes Wood’s goals (two in 18 games) helped keep Newcastle in the Premier League.
“Looking back on it, I don’t think we made any mistakes with the players that we bought,” he said.
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“You know, we even bought a player called Chris Wood. At the time we paid £25million for him and everyone was like ‘You’re crazy, what are you doing?’
“It was the January window, we didn’t have a proper striker and he was at Burnley.
“We knew that if we took him out, Burnley were obviously going to be at risk of relegation.
“At that point, we were sitting 18th in the league. We ended up buying Chris Wood, he scored three or four goals, that was the differentiator in us staying up and Burnley got relegated.”
Why Mehrdad Ghodoussi is wrong about Chris Wood’s time at Newcastle United
Ghodoussi isn’t quite right in his recollection. Though Wood certainly played his part, he did only score twice during that first half-season at the club.
Just one of those (his penalty against Wolves at St James’ Park in April 2022) was a game-deciding goal.
Had that not been scored, Newcastle would still easily have avoided relegation.
Their total points tally for the campaign was 49, so even taking three of them away would have seen them finish on 46 and level on points with Brentford in 13th.
Newcastle sold Wood to Nottingham Forest after an initial loan spell for a significant sum in the summer of 2023. Indeed, he certainly wasn’t a dreadful signing by any means.
However, he did not play quite as important a role as Ghodoussi recalls.
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