Now that pre-season is officially underway, we should hopefully start seeing a few more faces make their way to the City Ground, although some transfers are proving slightly trickier to complete than others.
Football.London are reporting that Sam Byram has traveled with the West Ham squad for their pre-season training camp in Switzerland, with NottinghamshireLive describing the situation as Byram being ‘in limbo’, which I think is a pretty good phrase to use.
He’s clearly not wanted at the club, seeing as they offered him up to West Brom in an attempt to sign Salomon Rondon, yet he’s training with the first team squad, indicating he could have a part to play in the team after all.
Byram has been linked with Nottingham Forest for the majority of the summer, and the club are keen to get him back so he can finish the job he didn’t get a chance to have a crack at last season when he suffered a gruesome injury in the 3-1 victory over Newcastle back in August.
Right back is a position that seriously needs addressing this summer, after Saidy Janko ended his loan move and is reportedly being sent on loan to Young Boys from his parent club Benfica, which only leaves Zimbabwe international Tendayi Darikwa, so they need to sign somebody fast. Unless Lamouchi is going to dip into the academy and pick one of them to compete with Darikwa, you can’t go into the season with just one player in that position.
That’s why it’s so imperative that the board and the manager get on the same page and start agreeing on signings and making them happen. Nottingham Forest can’t afford to keep taking their time over these transfers. Now that the new boss is in, after tonight’s preseason game with Dundee, he should start to get an idea of what he needs and have a list of targets ready, there’s already rumours that he’s got his eyes set on one of his former players Abdoulaye Diallo.
If the club are serious about taking a step forward, after missing out on the playoffs last year, then they need to act quickly with these transfers, starting with the right back spot. Get Sam Byram out of his limbo and into a Garibaldi shirt.
