New move by Forest throws up more questions than answers – Opinion

The more I think about this one, the more baffled I get.

Nottingham Forest yesterday announced the signing of Brice Samba, a 25-year-old Congolese goalkeeper from French side Caen on a four-year-deal.

I have spoken before about the goalkeeper situation at the City Ground, about how there needs to be a clear structure and hierarchy in place for them. In there I spoke about how in an ideal world you have three keepers; your established number one, a wily old veteran and a young up-and-comer who sits back and learns from the other two in the hope that he’ll be the number one soon. Whoever you choose as your backup is up to you.

However, if you look at the situation that Nottingham Forest find themselves in now, with five goalkeepers on their books and it just becomes very confusing. Whilst the likes of Luke Steele looks set to make a move to Millwall, that still leaves a lot of questions surrounding Costel Pantilimon and Jordan Smith, do they still have a future under Sabri Lamouchi? Or will they find themselves with a new club by the end of the day?

Although perhaps more importantly for the immediate future, what does it mean for current number one Aro Muric? The Kosovan is only on a season-long loan from Manchester City, and let’s not forget that he signed a three-year contract extension at The Etihad before moving on loan. So any hope that he might find himself at the City Ground long-term, as I hoped he would when he was first linked with a move are probably dead and buried.

If that’s the case, then why is he still here? If Lamouchi has brought in Samba with the view to be number one at some point in the future, is there much point in having Muric around? And if Muric is still going to be number one this season, why did he bother to bring in Samba now? Could he not have waited until next summer?

See, I told you there would be a lot of questions, but here’s one more.

What do you make of it all?