The dream signings Nottingham Forest could have made in January – including £30m strikerplaceholder image
The dream signings Nottingham Forest could have made in January – including £30m striker | Getty Images
Nottingham Forest made some moves over the winter - but also failed to secure several key signings in the January transfer window.
Nottingham Forest were among the more active Premier League teams over the course of a quiet January transfer window, but certainly didn’t get as many deals over the line as they seem to have wanted – based, at least, on the number of offers they made which were ultimately turned away.
Luca Netz, Lorenzo Lucca and Stefan Ortega all arrived at the City Ground over the winter and could well have a significant impact on the club’s battle against relegation from the top flight, but did Forest do enough in the transfer market to ensure their survival? We’ll know for sure in a few months’ time, but for now it’s worth looking at the near misses they had over the last month to see whether they could have done better…
Inter Milan & Brighton stars among Nottingham Forest’s missed midfield targets
While Nottingham Forest were successful in replacing the outgoing Oleksandr Zinchenko and Arnaud Kalimuendo with Netz and Lucca respectively, their attempts to find someone to fill Douglas Luiz’s boots after he left for Aston Villa proved to be frustratingly fruitless.
That wasn’t for a lack of trying. A deadline day bid for Middlesbrough’s young box-to-box midfielder Hayden Hackney was rejected with the Championship side chasing promotion, and he wasn’t even the only player Forest attempted to sign on the final day of the window – three bids worth up to £25m for Celtic’s Arne Engels were also knocked back last Monday.
Those efforts came after interest in Inter Milan and Italy star Davide Frattesi came to nothing after the Nerazzurri failed to sign a replacement (most likely Liverpool’s Curtis Jones), although the more attack-minded technician wouldn’t necessarily have been a like-for-like replacement for Luiz.
Not long before those moves failed, Brighton & Hove Albion also rejected an offer of a reported £20m for rising Swedish star Yasin Ayari – a bid which appeared to significantly undervalue the 22-year-old. Ultimately, Forest’s efforts to find a midfielder were in vain, with bids for both Hackney, Frattesi and Engels coming too late to succeed. That could prove to be a significant failure as the battle to beat the drop unfolds.
£30m striker among other transfer targets before deadline day
While the addition of a midfielder was clearly Forest’s main priority in the winter window, they also looked at signing several other players – but fell short, with a £35m bid for Jean-Philippe Mateta perhaps the most attention-grabbing deal which failed to materialise.
At the time, Crystal Palace were holding out for £40m for the 28-year-old forward and thus turned the offer down, but as deadline day neared the Eagles were forced to accept a bid worth just £30m from AC Milan. That deal collapsed after Mateta failed a medical, but it’s unclear why Forest did not return to the table. It may be that Mateta himself was only interested in trying to force a move to an elite side.
Elsewhere, Forest also looked to sign a centre-back, and failed with another attempt to sign a Brighton player when their move for 34-year-old defender Lewis Dunk was rejected – the terms of Forest’s offer were unclear, but they clearly came no closer to meeting the Seagulls’ valuation than they did when trying to sign Ayari.
They also failed to agree personal terms with Fiorentina’s Robin Gosens, who reportedly turned down the chance to move to England even if the exact reason is unknown. His Italian employers appear to have been willing to strike a deal for the 31-year-old, but it appears that the City Ground didn’t appeal as a destination.
The failure to succeed with those deals may not prove quite so costly. While Forest have been short of firepower with Chris Wood out for months with a persistent knee injury, there was an argument that Mateta would have been more of a luxury signing than an outright necessity – and Forest have strength and quality at centre-back with Murillo and Nikola Milenković on the books, even if extra depth would plainly have been appreciated. If the transfer window’s disappointments do prove to be Forest’s undoing, however, it’s more likely that the lack of a replacement for Douglas Luiz will be the most damaging failure of the winter.
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