Nottingham Forest have had plenty of struggles in recent seasons, but recently it all came together for the club and on securing a return to the English top flight, our owners probably surprised plenty in the Premier League given the money that was spent and the sheer number of new players we bought into the City Ground.
Whilst fans will obviously have their own opinions on which new signings last summer have made a material difference to the squad’s fortunes in the 2022/23 campaign so far, with over £100 million spent as we try and secure our Premier League future, whilst we might not have another arrival during the January transfer window, manager Steve Cooper is again beginning to work his magic properly on the team and football odds have now increased when it comes to us securing survival and consolidation.
Despite our nine defeats across the season so far, the recent form guide makes for better reading and as we head into the month of February, we are sat roughly in mid table in 13th place with 21 points to our name. Nobody is looking at the European spots (a ten point gap) and the focus has to remain on the drop zone (a four point gap) – but the fact we find ourselves ahead of Leicester City, Leeds United, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bournemouth, Everton and Southampton should be a massive boost of confidence for everyone given all the playing squad changes we have seen as we head towards the final game of the year.
In a recent interview with Betway Insider, former short term Nottingham Forest striker Andy Cole sat down to discuss a wide range of football matters, and Forest seemingly turning around their own season was one of the topics that came up.
The now 51 year old former England international was full of praise for what Steve Cooper had managed to achieve at the club, and he more than commended the amount of work that had to have been done on the training ground to get so many new players to settle and form an understanding in what is, in reality, such a short period of time given the lack of continuity their arrivals created, and he kind of hinted that he felt that we would now be one of the sides who avoided relegation this year, given how things had started to come together.
“From the outside looking in, Steve Cooper looks like a really good manager. It’s always going to be tough when you bring in so many new signings but they’ve found their feet now. If you look at the position Forest are in, a lot of that is down to him. He’s got the players to buy into it and if he can keep them up it would be a massive achievement. It’s really exciting that they have a homegrown player in Brennan Johnson doing so well. I played with his dad, David Johnson, and he will be absolutely delighted. Any club is happy to have homegrown players because they save you money. If you sell them on, you can get millions of pounds for them or you can keep them and they prevent you from ever needing to sign a replacement. It’s fantastic to have homegrown players in your team.”
Given the subtle hint at survival, Cole is also right to point out the value of Johnson – should we go down again there are financial issues at play given our spending, but as a homegrown lad, he would be an incredible short term fix to that, and then we could build again with a bit more continuity as we aimed to bounce instantly back.
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