It looks like there’s more than one player at the City Ground who is turning heads in the Premier League.
After the story a couple of weeks ago in The Sun (15/11/19, page 74) regarding Matty Cash’s potential move to the top flight, one of his defensive partners is also being looked at, and this time it’s a pretty big team they’re being linked with. According to reports from Football Insider, Arsenal are interested in bringing in Forest defender Joe Worrall. The report later goes on to state that scouts from the North London side are set to send scouts to tonight’s game against QPR to assess him.
Whilst there has been some chopping and changing at the back this season, with the goalkeeper changing from Aro Muric to Brice Samba, Matty Cash and Carl Jenkinson having goes at right-back and Jack Robinson and Yuro Ribeiro taking turns at left-back, the one constant throughout the whole thing has been Worrall, who has played every minute of every game in the league so far this campaign.
Forest already have an abundance of centre-backs right now, with the likes of Chema, Michael Hefele, Yohan Benalouane, Tobias Figueiredo and captain Michael Dawson (although he gets pushed to one side because of his age and contract), so they wouldn’t exactly be short-handed if he were to leave. But there’s something that Worrall brings to the table that the others don’t and that’s leadership, he’s even been noted as a potential Forest captain some time in the future because of the comparisons to the aforementioned Dawson.
Whilst I have said in the past, particularly when it comes to Cash, that I think there needs to be an element of ‘reinvesting’ with this Nottingham Forest squad, there is a line that can’t be crossed and the idea of selling Worrall certainly falls in that category, because of what he’ll be able to bring to the club going forward, especially if Dawson calls it a day at the end of the season.
Will Worrall leave in January if Arsenal offer the right price?
Yes
No
It’s for that reason, and that reason alone, that Forest need to reject any and all offers that might come the club’s way during the January window, because this isn’t simply a case of swapping out one player for another. There are other, more important factors at play.
