With Morgan Gibbs-White penning a 5 year deal at The City Ground, he becomes the 16th player to sign for Nottingham Forest this summer – a number that’s got football fans up and down the country asking: “how many?”
At the time of writing, Forest’s opening home fixture of their 22/23 Premier League campaign resulted in an impressive 1-0 win over West Ham.
In front of an adoring crowd of 29,000, Steve Cooper’s side – featuring 8 new signings among their starting 11 – caught their opponents off guard by playing with their signature, free-flowing, attacking style of football that helped them gain promotion from the Championship.
Whilst the lineup on the pitch may be sporting a new look, Forest have stuck to their beloved identity under Cooper, stretching the ball out to both touchlines whenever they can, making as much space as possible – perfect for direct, transitional football. Their favoured formation, a 3-5-2 of sorts, looks in no danger of being sacrificed for life in the top-flight, either.
Neco Williams and Harry Toffolo looked polished in their counter attacking, wing-back roles on Sunday, dragging West Ham’s holding midfielders out into choppy waters, allowing room for Jesse Lingard, who thrives when given that kind of space.
All three of those names mentioned are new to the team this season, along with 16 others from all over Europe.
Although last week proved obvious that Forest won’t be an easy fixture – for any opponent – especially at The City Ground, it was tricky for the average Premier League enjoyer to decipher who was who; how to process all those new names and faces that will grace our eyes and ears this year.
Ok, deep breath. Here’s every, single one of them (ordered from goalkeepers up to forwards): Dean Henderson, Wayne Hennessey; Harry Toffolo, Omar Richards, Giulian Biancone, Moussa Niakhaté, Neco Williams; Cheikhou Kouyaté, Jesse Lingard, Brandon Aguilera, Lewis O’Brien, Remo Freuler, Orel Mangala, Morgan Gibbs-White; Taiwo Awoniyi, Emmanuel Dennis. That’s a list long enough to fill out one of Jamie Vardy’s parties, all by itself.
Don’t be alarmed by that long list of players. As Forest fans already know, Steve Cooper is an excellent man-manager. Revealed only a few weeks ago (via Sky Sports), club captain, Joe Worrall, hosted a barbecue at his home to conclude Forest’s pre season work – every player was invited.
Reported to be the first of many – although maybe the last barbecue, as, this is the UK we’re talking about here – every player is tasked with hosting an ‘event’, to help the whole team bond as one, to create an atmosphere of togetherness within the squad.
These new acquisitions aren’t just a hopeful stab in the dark, either. Each player has been plucked carefully and meticulously from each of Europe’s top 5 leagues, according to performance data, and attributes that adhere to how Steve Cooper wants to play. Not only limited to the club’s adored manager, fans have CEO, Dane Murphy, to thank for that, too.
Here’s a quick history lesson.
Forest have a notorious reputation for high turnovers of players in their squad; this year is no exception. But, their current CEO has been doing it differently since he was hired back in June 2021, only a few months before the club began it’s promotion-winning campaign.
At 35 years old, Murphy is the youngest chief executive to operate in any of England’s professional leagues, ever. The American, a former footballer in Germany and his home country, first began working as a chief exec in England at Barnsley, in the Championship, having previously worked as a technical director at DC United and Real Salt Lake in the US.
In two seasons at Barnsley, with the burden of working with the lowest transfer budget in the league, he helped to transform them from relegation fodder, into play-off hopefuls. His importance to Barnsley during that time was highlighted by the Yorkshire club being relegated to league 1, the year following his departure.
Recruited by Forest, Murphy straight away brought in the help of George Sirianos, former head of analytics at VFB Stuttgart – a club well known in Germany for their impressive player development record and smart recruitment.
With the financial backing of owner Evangelos Marinakis, Murphy and Sirianos helped then manager, Chris Hughton, lower the average age of the squad by making more long-term signings, instead of bringing in players who were well past their best. Djed Spence, James Garner and Sam Surridge in the door; Craig Dawson, Harry Arter and Glenn Murray out of the door, are a few that spring to mind.
Hughton was sacked after 6 defeats from 7 games, unable to get the best out of his players. Steve Cooper took over and the rest, as they say, was history. Cooper galvanised that Forest team to steadily climb up the Championship table, eventually guiding them to win the match dubbed as the most lucrative in football – the play-off final. Forest were back in the Premier League after a 23-year-long wait.
9 of those 19 players named in that play-off final winning squad have now left the club, with most of them returning back to their clubs from loan deals. One of those being argued player of the season, now Spurs asset, Djed Spence.
So, the Reds haven’t spent £140M on new players just for the sake of it – they had to splash some cash, either way. But, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.
In the 2018/19 season, newly promoted Fulham – with the help of their extremely wealthy owners – spent just over £100M on summer signings, bringing in 15 additions to their shiny new Premier League squad. However, most of these players were ones that the club wanted to bring in as statement signings, rather than those that the manager, Slavisa Jokanovic, wanted (ring any bells, Manchester United fans?). Jokanovic was sacked only a few months later and Fulham were relegated that season.
What does all this mean for Forest and their new team this season, though? Expect to see players, that you’ve probably not heard of before, looking well drilled and suited to life in the Premier League. Think of Brentford, who – on and off the pitch – are also run by those who seem to know what they’re doing; even the Bees opted for a 3-5-2 formation in their newly promoted season as well.
Who’s to say that Steve Cooper’s boys can’t go out and achieve similar to what Brentford did last year? A mid-table finish would more than delight fans. Speaking with a handful of them, over the last 24 hours, Full90 has been encouraged to expect big things from Forest this season:
“Our quality of signings outweighs Fulham’s, in my opinion. The key is: do you have the right manager to mould them quickly and build a team? Of that I’m most confident as Cooper has form with England, Swans and us.” (Gary Donnelly)
“The new players are better than most of the loaned ones we had last season. Took a while for sentiment to go away, really wanted a couple of them back, but we’ve signed some cracking players. No chance this team is going down.” (Stuart H)
“I expected us to be ropey until the first international break, to be honest. Any points before then is great. All the new lads seem to have high ceilings, with plenty of room to grow.” (Jacob Lawrance)
“The reaction from the players on the bench at full-time on Sunday was already similar to what we had last season. Mangala, O’Brien, Williams, Niakhaté and Toffolo look quality already – Cooper is the real deal. This time last year we were rock bottom of the Championship and now we’re signing players that Man United and Everton were after. Of course we are excited.” (@PsychoFTID)
And, finally:
“After what Cooper achieved last season, I trust him to succeed. Not worried in the slightest.” (Trev Chapman)
Forest play Everton this afternoon, and if results were decided by the togetherness of a football club – rather than the number of goals scored – Steve Cooper’s tricky Trees would already be taking 3 points back to Nottingham with them.
