Nottingham Forest have hit a hitch in their attempts to sign Senegalese midfielder Younousse Sankhare.
Having been linked with a move to Nottingham Forest a few weeks ago through France Football, the deal didn’t seem to get much more attention after that. However, reports coming in from TEAMtalk say that Cardiff City are ready to lodge a bid for the 29-year-old, giving Forest a much sterner test to sign him than they would have liked.
With Cardiff very much working under a budget, having only spent £2.12m in the summer window thus far, but having received £99.6m last season in the Premier League, they’re in a much better financial situation to compete for players than Forest are, should they decide to splash the cash on that one big signing.
In the grand scheme of things, I think it’s best to let Cardiff and any other clubs fight amongst themselves over this one, with the likes of Sheffield United, Swansea and Olympiacos all linked with the 29-year-old as well. I don’t think Forest would be able to compete financially with Cardiff, given their recent windfall, but more importantly, I don’t think there’s a place in the team for him.
With Sankhare acting predominantly as a defensive and central midfielder, I don’t see where he would fit into the current Forest side, given the amount of talent already at their disposal.
I said before in my piece on Ben Osborn, that I can see Lamouchi operating a 4-3-3 system, as he did in his Ivory Coast days. That midfield will consist of the new signing Alfa Semedo in the holding role, with Joao Carvalho and Tiago Silva as the two central attacking midfielders. Leaving Albert Adomah and Joe Lolley either side of Lewis Grabban.
In that scenario, I just don’t see the point in being drawn into a bidding war over someone who’s going to start on the bench. His age is also worrying for me too, at 29 he’s just approaching that time in his career where clubs only offer players over 30 one-year deals.
All in all, I think this would be a bad move for Forest. My main concern for him being his age, if Lamouchi wished to pad out the squad with rotation players for games when players are either rested or suspended, then he needs to be aiming for younger players, rather than those who are approaching the back nine of their careers.
