Lamouchi talks about the pride in his side, but his next step with them will be crucial - Report

I suppose he’s just taking the ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ approach.

And given the team that he put out for the game, I think it’s fair to say that this was his main approach right from the very start, so he really did manage to achieve his aim by hook or by crook.

The Reds’ FA Cup journey is over for another year as they fell at the hands of Chelsea, although things might have been a bit different if a penalty in the first-half hadn’t have been interrupted by the presence of VAR.

Speaking after the match though, Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi didn’t seem too concerned with the result. Indeed his main focus seemed to be on the future, and not just when it comes to the next few weeks given the amount of first-team players that he rested, but also the next couple of years as he praised the Forest academy for their work in bringing in and developing so many talented youngsters:

“We gave some players 90 minutes – Carl Jenkinson, Yuri Ribeiro, Ryan Yates, Michael Dawson. And the surprise – for you, maybe, but not for me – was the young players; Brennan Johnson in a different position, but especially Alex Mighten. We must be proud of our performance because to play with this character is nice. At Nottingham Forest, we have a good academy and very good young players. Gary Brazil, Chris Cohen and all the coaches at the academy, they have young, talented players.”

The question is, what is the next step?

As I talked about a couple of months ago about Brennan Johnson, there has to come a point where a decision has to be made about the future of these players, and whether or not they are going to make it at the City Ground, or if they need to be cut loose.

With the January transfer window upon us, now is the perfect time for the players to show if they have any potential, and it might take a trip away from the City Ground to do so. Now that they have had that brief glimpse at first-team football, they need to be given more of it. Send them on loan, let them develop, and who knows, maybe they’ll show enough there to push for a spot in the Forest team in the summer.