The Daily Mail's Craig Hope has said that Newcastle United may 'accelerate' their summer business following the departure of Chris Wood.
The Lowdown: Wood heads to Forest on loan
Eddie Howe's side is a striker short after agreeing to loan the New Zealand forward to fellow Premier League side Nottingham Forest, with an option to buy for Steve Cooper's side.
Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson are now the club's only natural forward options, but both have impressive returns in the league. Isak has three goals from four Premier League matches and Wilson has nine goal contributions in 14 appearances in England's top flight.
However the club may look to add one more option in attack this month, for the sake of depth purposes.
The Latest: Hope gives striker verdict
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hope said that Newcastle won't be looking for a player that is of a similar mould to Wood. The Magpies won't just sign players for the sake of it, but they don't have long to get a potential deal sorted.
He stated: "Now the question is, of course, who do they bring in? They've themselves 11 days to do it; what they won't do is they won't go out and sign another Chris Wood-type. It won't be just a short-term deal to satisfy that gap in the squad.
"They'll look to accelerate summer business. This was always the message from Dan Ashworth and from Eddie Howe as well, January will be a month whereby they know what they want to do in the summer.
"If we can do some of that during the course of this month, the winter window, then okay, great - but they're not going to sign players just for the sake of it."
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The Verdict: New striker would provide safety net
Both Wilson and Isak have the scoring stats to show that they're both quality strikers, but they've had injuries at different points in the season.
It would be a huge blow to Howe's side if both were to sustain setbacks at similar times during the 2022/23 campaign, leaving them without a natural striker in the squad.
Bringing in a young forward would be the best cause of action from Eddie Howe, Wilson would be a great player to learn from as he's an experienced player who knows his way around the Premier League and how to get goals in the division.
There's been talk recently by The Sun that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is wanted by the Toon, but that move seems unlikely as surely Howe doesn't want to add another injury-riddled striker to his ranks.