When Nottingham Forest return from the international break later this month, they will have a crucial few weeks ahead.
Huge, in fact. Not just a decisive few weeks for where the Reds will finish in the Premier League table and their FA Cup hopes, but massively important for the longer term as well.
Secure Champions League football and it could be a launch pad for Forest. A platform to build and fulfil the big dreams owner Evangelos Marinakis has long stated he has for the club.
With European football comes more cash, with more cash and competing on the continent comes a richer transfer pool to dip into for potential transfers. Get over the line this season and no doubt the Reds will be linked with some very exciting players as they look to strengthen Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad.
Indeed, they already have been. The accuracy of the links to Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres - reported by Football Transfers - might be questionable. But Forest simply being mentioned in the same sentence as the in-demand striker, however dubious the validity, is a sign of how far the club have come.
Gyokeres is reportedly on the radar of a string of clubs ahead of the summer. Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea are said to be among his suitors. There will be no shortage of speculation about him as the transfer window edges closer.
The Reds need a striker, there is no doubt about that. Bolstering Nuno’s attacking resources will be a top priority come the end of the campaign.
Inevitably, forwards cost a premium. Almost every team wants one and proven goalscorers are like gold dust.
Marinakis is an ambitious man. He has certainly shown that with the funds he has invested into transfers.
Forest have been smart operators in recent windows, though. Bargain fees being paid for the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nikola Milenkovic demonstrate as much.
Nuno has said himself how financial regulations impact what the Reds, and their rivals, can do. Forest know what it is to fall foul of Profitability and Sustainability Rules and they will not want to do so ever again.
“It has had a massive effect on transfers, not only for January but also for June,” Nuno has said. “PSR is present in the lives of football clubs these days and they have to keep looking at it.
“It has now changed everything for everybody. Nobody wants to risk a situation like we had last season (a four-point deduction for breaching the financial regulations), so that’s why you sometimes see things that don’t make much sense.”
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It was telling, too, that far from viewing links with players such as Matheus Cunha and Yoane Wissa as a statement of Forest’s intent during the winter window, Nuno saw the club’s sense of ambition as being measured in other ways. He was very insistent that the Reds do not have to sell a vision to their targets, largely because the proof of what is possible is already there.
“It is the other way around. Why do we have to sell ourselves? If a player wants to join us, if there is something happening, he has to want to join us. We are a good club,” Nuno said at the time.
“It is a good club for the players, in terms of the environment. We have all the facilities for the players to improve. We are improving and growing, and trying to get better.
“The ambition is not measured by (players Forest are linked with). The ambition is the way we operate and the way we want to improve as a team, because if we improve as a team the club will be better for the challenge we have ahead of us. The ambition is measured by how we are doing and what we want to achieve.”
Nuno’s stance is unlikely to have changed come the summer, regardless of whether or not Forest are a Champions League club by that point. The calibre of player the Reds get linked with might step up a notch but for the Portuguese, signing the right characters and ensuring he has a united changing room will always come first.
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