It is when you approach the stadium along the banks of the River Trent that it becomes apparent Nottingham Forest are still putting the finishing touches to what, on the face of it, has been a productive summer.
Officially, the City Ground’s capacity for the coming Premier League season has gone up to 30,404. New seats have been added to help cater for the demand that, according to Forest’s data, could have meant selling 50,000 tickets for some matches.
For now, however, work to create a “corner box” development between the Trent End and the Brian Clough stand remains unfinished. The new facility will not be ready for a while yet and nor will the specially created annexe that is being put up for owner Evangelos Marinakis to watch matches, starting tomorrow with their first game of the new Premier League season against Bournemouth. Work is ongoing — a frenzy of hard hats, fluorescent-jacketed workmen and whirring machinery.
There was still work being done on the ‘corner box’ development between the Trent End and the Brian Clough stand on Thursday (Daniel Taylor/The Athletic)
Quietly, away from view, there are other people at the City Ground working on projects. A new striker is the next target as Forest fine-tune their planning with a noticeably different approach than has been the case, at times, since winning promotion in 2022.
The theme in that period has been of recovery and expansion and perhaps it is inevitable that has meant some growing pains for a club re-acclimating to England’s top division after almost a quarter of a century away. Every transfer has brought good and bad. The good has outweighed the bad, but it has been a close-run thing at times.
This summer, though, the churn of activity has felt more measured, less chaotic, and indicative perhaps of a club that has learned from the ordeal of falling into the relegation zone last season, albeit briefly, because of their four-point penalty for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) on overspending.
“That is over, we don’t want to think any more about that,” said the manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, declaring himself “100 per cent sure” Forest were no longer vulnerable to follow-up charges. For that alone, it has been an impressive summer within the Marinakis operation.
More than anything, there is evidence of a clearly defined plan. The transfer links these days revolve around young, talented players, often from the South American market, rather than fading thirty-somethings who will take a lot of money out of the club and not give back a huge amount in return.
Forest, in the process, have managed to strengthen their squad while moving out a number of older, highly-paid players to reduce the wage bill. In the seven years since Marinakis officially took control, the recruitment team may never have been more aligned. This is important because recent history shows it has not always been that way. Nuno congratulated the club for their “clinical” business. “They have done a good job,” he said.
Not everyone seems convinced, with only the three promoted clubs — Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City — being given shorter odds by the betting companies to be relegated. Various media outlets have predicted Forest will finish below the jagged line (The Athletic has them in 16th) and FourFourTwo magazine’s prediction of a 19th-placed relegation was accompanied by some unflattering remarks about a club “giving up leads, fluking survival, raising ticket prices by 24 per cent… all is not well”.
Closer analysis, however, should explain why Forest’s supporters have come out on top in a Premier League “hope-o-meter” poll revealed by The Athletic yesterday. Of the Forest fan base, 95 per cent felt optimistic about the coming season — more than any other club.
Perhaps the mood would have been different if any of Murillo’s admirers had produced the big bucks to lure away the Brazilian centre-half who won Forest’s player of the year award last season and would have cost more than £60million ($77m).
Instead, Forest raised the money to stave off the possibility of another PSR charge by finding other players to sell before the June 30 deadline. Murillo will remain where he is for at least one more season and, despite considerable speculation, the same looks likely for the other players — Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga — whose departures would have hurt fans the most.
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Seven new arrivals have come in — the latest is set to be Ramon Sosa, the 24-year-old Paraguay international winger, from Argentinian club Talleres for £11million. But Nuno made the point that some of the club’s more impressive summer business related to who they had kept, not who they had signed. Danilo, the Brazilian midfielder, has also been linked with a move away, as has right-back Neco Williams.
Ramon Sosa is set to join from Talleres for £11million (Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images)
“Our priority is to keep all the players,” said Nuno. “I realise there is interest from other clubs, but Forest’s concern is to keep them all.”
If you need more evidence as to why Nuno is operating from a more favourable starting position than his predecessor, Steve Cooper, it is also worth remembering that last summer there were 18 players who did not have a full pre-season for one reason or another.
The year before that, a new signing arrived, on average, every four days. It was Cooper’s task to amalgamate everyone during an unprecedented period of spending that was spectacular, unorthodox, bold, exciting, and slightly unsettling all at once.
Something else has changed for the better. In the first three years of the Marinakis era, there was only one occasion when Forest made a profit by selling a player they had previously bought. That was Jack Robinson, who signed on a free from QPR and moved to Sheffield United for a small fee while Forest were in the Championship.
More and more, though, it seems Forest are operating with more joined-up thinking in the transfer market — and it is working in their favour financially.
Orel Mangala, who joined Forest for an initial £10.5million, has been sold to Lyon in a financial package that could peak at £30million. Moussa Niakhate went in the same direction, joining the French club for £27m having signed for an initial £9m. Odysseas Vlachodimos’ PSR-friendly move to Newcastle United — a third-choice goalkeeper signing for around £20million (meaning Elliot Anderson’s reported £35m transfer in the other direction worked out, in reality, nearer £15m) — was a spectacular piece of business.
These are the biggest profits Forest have ever made on their own signings and that pattern should continue now the club have made it a deliberate policy to identify young, up-and-coming players who will, in theory, eventually be worth higher sums. Of the 23 players in Nuno’s first-team plans, all but six are aged 26 or below.
There are still imperfections. It has not been easy to move out Emmanuel Dennis, one of the players who symbolises an era of transfer-market excess. Hwang Ui-jo’s situation is troubling, to say the least, and Nuno replied “not yet” (albeit smiling) when he was asked if he was fully satisfied with his squad. Evanilson was a target before Bournemouth agreed a deal for Porto’s Brazilian striker.
Forest are also working on moving out a number of fringe players before the transfer window closes. One is Joe Worrall, the former captain, who has known for some time that he will not figure for his hometown club this season. Omar Richards is not in Nuno’s plans either, even though the club are contemplating bringing in another left-back and made contact with French club Brest earlier in the summer about Bradley Locko.
Forest are looking to move on players such as Joe Worrall (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Forest are always looking to upgrade and that could have implications for Harry Toffolo, the backup left-back. Forest will also go for another goalkeeper if they can find better than Matz Sels or new signing Carlos Miguel.
Overall, though, it feels like a settled camp and there have been other successes this summer that will encourage fans in other ways.
One was persuading Steven Reid, the popular first-team coach, to sign a new contract — quietly, without any fanfare.
Forest have also recruited the highly rated Adam Robinson from Derby County to become the club’s new head of academy performance. Robinson spent 15 years at Derby as a coach and sports scientist and played a considerable role in the production line that brought through Max Bird, Eiran Cashin and Louie Sibley, among others.
One surprise, perhaps, is Forest have not brought in a specialist set-play coach bearing in mind the team had the worst statistics on this front in the Premier League last season.
Simon Rusk, who was appointed to the role in the final week of the Cooper era, was moved out over the summer having been marginalised after Nuno’s arrival the previous December.
But the arrival of Nikola Milenkovic, a 6ft 5in (196cm) Serbia international centre-half, should go some way to making Forest more solid in their own penalty area. Milenkovic had the best heading statistics in Italy last season. He has joined from Fiorentina for an initial £10.5million when many Serie A-watchers assumed he would be worth twice that amount. He does, however, have to get past Willy Boly, who partnered Murillo during a training match on the City Ground pitch on Thursday.
“Their task is not easy,” Nuno said of the new arrivals. “When they arrive, they realise we have a strong squad and that they will have to work very hard to get in the team.”
This time last year, Forest had a nightmarish opening run that took in away fixtures against Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City in their first seven games.
The fixture list this season starts a lot more obligingly. Everyone is fit. Ibrahim Sangare, in particular, looks sharp and enthused. Anderson has quickly made a positive impact.
And Nuno? Forest’s manager is notorious for giving little away, but his body language spoke volumes: smiling, upbeat, eager to get going.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)