Matz Sels, Newcastle United and an unheralded return

Nottingham Forest's Matz Sels returns to St James' Park a different player to the one who quietly left Newcastle United after a difficult two-year spell.

Nottingham Forest’s Matt Sels with the Belgium squad in 2022.

The roles Chris Wood and Elliot Anderson have played in Nottingham Forest’s fine season have not gone unnoticed on Tyneside ahead of this afternoon’s game at St James’ Park.

Wood – who has scored 18 Premier League goals so far this season – left Newcastle United in search of first-team football two years ago, as he revealed in an exclusive FourFourTwo interview earlier this season.

“Obviously, I wanted to do so much more at Newcastle,” said Wood when I sat down with him at Forest’s training ground late last year.

The striker – who scored a hat-trick for this afternoon’s opponents at St James’ Park last season – is enjoying the best season of his career at the third-placed club.

Chris Wood speaking in February’s issue of FourFourTwo.

Anderson, sold last summer by the club along with Yankuba Minteh to ensure its compliance with Profit and Sustainability rules, was one that got away.

The midfielder has been able to showcase his unquestioned talent following thanks to first-team football at Forest, something he was not certain of on Tyneside.

Yet, another former Newcastle player has played an equally important role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.

Benitez transfer

That player is Matz Sels, a goalkeeper who had a two-year association with the club during Rafa Benitez’s time as manager.

Sels joined from Gent following the club’s relegation to the Championship in 2016. At the time, Tim Krul, previously the club’s No.1, was recovering from a serious knee injury (he would end the season on loan at AZ Alkmaar), and the club was short of a goalkeeper.

Incidentally, Krul – who I caught up with in Holland that season – had hoped to return to the Newcastle squad the following season after proving his fitness, but Benitez had other ideas.

The next goalkeeper to be signed by Benitez would be Martin Dubravka, who this week signed a new contract on Tyneside after a run in the team and is expected to play against Forest.

Sels started the 2016/17 season in goal, and kept five clean sheets in his first nine appearances, but he was blamed for a late Aston Villa equaliser at Villa Park – and never played another league game for the club.

In the aftermath of the game, Sels deleted his Twitter account.

Speaking at the time, Benitez said: “He’s fine. He's a young lad coming to a new country. I think he has a great future.”

The adjustment to the physicality and intensity English football is tough for players coming from the continent, and the Championship is an especially unforgiving division.

Sels’ final appearance for the club would come four months later at Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium. A much-changed Newcastle XI, which included the inexperienced Curtis Good, Dan Barlaser and Yasin Ben El-Mhanni, was beaten 3-0 in a fourth-round FA Cup tie, and I asked to speak to Sels as he left the three-sided ground.

To his credit, Sels, clearly upset at the result, fronted up and spoke about the game.

“No excuses,” Sels bluntly said.

Sels was loaned to Anderlecht the following season, and the next time I caught up with him was in very different surroundings.

It was the summer of 2018, he was enjoying a drink in the sun with friends on the Quayside as he waited for a move to Strasbourg to be completed.

Sels, out of favour since that loss to Oxford, knew it was time to move on.

New chance

The Belgium international was keen to return to England after six years in France, and he got a second opportunity with Forest.

And a more experienced Sels has literally taken that chance with both hands.

The 32-year-old, set for his first competitive appearance at St James’ Park in more than eight years, was all smiles when I saw him at Forest’s training ground in November. He’s clearly enjoying his second spell in the country, having returned better equipped for the rigours of the English game.

Sels has starred for Forest this season, and his performances in goal for the club suggest that Newcastle may have got the right player at the wrong time all those years ago.