Eddie Howe: 'Newcastle United won't target direct Chris Wood replacement'

A year ago, the Magpies spent £25m to sign Wood from Burnley, and the New Zealand international played his part in ensuring that his new side finished comfortably above the relegation zone in the Premier League table.

However, at a time when Wood has only chipped in with five goals in 39 appearances, Newcastle have also signed Alexander Isak for a club-record fee.

That relegated Wood to third choice in the pecking order and the 31-year-old is now on the brink of signing for Nottingham Forest, initially on loan but with the obligation to buy.

In the short term, that leaves Newcastle one player short in terms of attacking options, with the expectation being that an alternative will be signed before the end of the January transfer window.

Although Howe hints that could well be the case, he has offered 'no guarantees', while also indicating that he may move away from signing a traditional target man such as Wood.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, the Englishman said: "From my side there was no plan of letting a player go and not replacing him. That would leave us dangerously short of players. But there are no guarantees.

"I don't think we will replace Chris with another Chris if that makes sense. His type of player I don't think is in the market. His unique skills he has we needed that this time last year. He was a focal point for us and enabled us to play in a way to take the pressure off players.

"We aren't necessarily looking for that type of player but we will see what we can do. It has to be the right player and that is so important in any deal we have to do.

"We would have targets that we would pursue for sure and we will wait and see how those goes. It's important not to have just one and we do have a pool of players that we like so let's see how we go."

Newcastle have been linked with various attackers since the turn of the year, and Marcus Thuram is allegedly viewed as a target for the North-East outfit.

The versatile Borussia Monchengladbach attacker has less than six months left on his contract and is known to be also be a target of Chelsea.

Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin also has admirers at St James' Park, while Newcastle are said to be one of several Premier League teams interested in Roma's Nicolo Zaniolo.