Former Leeds United striker can kick-start 'revolution' at Newcastle United – according to former Birmingham City teammate

Chris Wood’s former teammate Curtis Davies believes the striker can kick-start Newcastle United’s ‘revolution’ under new ownership.
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The Magpies are the richest club in world football following their Saudi-led takeover back in October. This month they have signed Kieran Trippier from Atletico Madrid and are closing in on a £25million deal for Wood from Burnley.

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And Davies – who was Wood’s teammate at Birmingham City during the 2011-12 season – has praised Newcastle for conducting a ‘really clever’ piece of transfer business, should the signing go through as planned.

Chris Wood of Birmingham celebrates with the match ball after scoring a hat-trick during the npower Championship match between Birmingham City and Millwall at St Andrews on September 11, 2011 in Birmingham, England.  (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Chris Wood of Birmingham celebrates with the match ball after scoring a hat-trick during the npower Championship match between Birmingham City and Millwall at St Andrews on September 11, 2011 in Birmingham, England.  (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Chris Wood of Birmingham celebrates with the match ball after scoring a hat-trick during the npower Championship match between Birmingham City and Millwall at St Andrews on September 11, 2011 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
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"He is a handful,” Davies told Sky Sports. “The way he plays, people will look at the Burnley side and see he is quite robust, he’s quite strong and within that team he is able to use those attributes to his strength.

"[Newcastle] get crosses into the box, he’s great in the air and is a good finisher as well. If he’s got the likes of [Allan] Saint-Maximin teeing him up week-in, week-out, I don’t see why he can’t be a success at Newcastle.

"This is a really clever one from Newcastle because it would be easy to go out and spend £70million on a top European striker and pay them over the odds to get them to the football club.

"But they’ve got a player who knows the league, Eddie Howe probably knows the player having seen him a lot throughout his Premier League career and I think he could be a great signing for them and hopefully he can kick-start their revolution.”

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Wood was just 19 when he played alongside Davies at Birmingham, registering 11 goals in 29 appearances including two goals in the Europa League.

Since then, he has won the Championship golden boot with Leeds United after scoring 30 goals during the 2016-17 campaign and securing a Premier League move to Burnley on the back of it.

“At Leeds he became a natural goalscorer in terms of he scored 30 goals for Leeds one season, so he was taking his chances,” Davies added.

"It’s not one where he scores one in five, he became quite clinical and I think throughout his Burnley career he’s had to be that because Burnley don’t often create lots of chances so he’s had to be clinical and be a player who scores from one, two or three chances.

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"Going to Newcastle with the people they’ve got there with [Miguel] Almiron, Saint-Maximin and obviously Jonjo Shelvey, the quality they’ve got to supply him with a good pipeline of chances then I believe he’ll score some goals.”

Wood is currently undergoing a medical at Newcastle with the club hopeful of completing a move in time for Saturday's crucial Premier League clash against 17th placed Watford at St James’s Park (3pm kick-off).

He will have to be registered as a Newcastle player by noon on Friday, January 14 in order to feature this weekend.

Three points for Newcastle will take them out of the relegation zone for the first time since September, providing Burnley fail to beat Leicester City.

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