Nottingham Forest weren’t overly active during the January transfer, as new boss Martin O’Neill started to assess the current crop.
Upon his arrival, it was pretty obvious that the Reds were desperately short at the back.
Yohan Benalouane arrived prior to the Bristol City game but no other defensive recruits were added until the transfer window had closed.
One of those was Alexander Milosevic.
The Swede had recently departed AIK and was picked up by O’Neill as a free agent. Some of the more cynical supporters, not really knowing his quality at this stage, slammed the signing as ‘desperate’, before he’d even kicked a ball.
His first game was a tough test. A 2-0 defeat at Birmingham saw him thrown into the deep end. He didn’t do a deal wrong, but it was a poor day at the office all-round for the team.
Following that Milosevic had a proper chance to get to know his team-mates and managed to get a full week’s worth of training under his belt.
In the last four games against Brentford, West Brom, Preston and on Monday against Derby, a case could be made for Milosevic winning Man of the Match in all of them.
Class act
His partnership with Benalouane is solid beyond belief and the pair look as though they have played together with each other forever.
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Milosevic is Mr Neat and Tidy.
Whilst the Tunisian brute next him does the ugly stuff, Milosevic is clever, mobile and not afraid to pick a pass rather than blast clear.
Not that Benalouane isn’t capable of being those things, but there is a clear difference in styles, which makes them a coherent pairing.
It is remarkable that Forest have managed to get Milosevic on a free. Even more astonishing that the club received half-a-million quid for Danny Fox and replaced him with the Swede.
It didn’t seem that anything would be remotely close to replacing Michael Dawson and Tobias Figueiredo six weeks ago.
Forest had gone on a run of eight games without defeat earlier in the campaign and those two were part of a formidable back four.
Supporters didn’t need to panic, however, as Milosevic and Benalouane have looked as good, if not better!
The 27-year-old has already proved a massive success story and is arguably the best free transfer the club has made in many a season.
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