The end of the summer transfer window is approaching for Nottingham Forest.
If you stand on tiptoes, you can just about make out deadline day in the distance.
What will happen before that point?
Sabri Lamouchi has suggested that he wants the Reds to be busy, with additions being sought across the field.
Plenty of names continue to be mooted as targets.
And the general consensus is that the squad, while not being light on numbers, perhaps is on quality depth.
Efforts will be made to address that issue.
Money may well be spent.
There has, however, not been an awful lot of cash splashed by the Reds so far.
Investment
Evangelos Marinakis is a man with deep pockets and has never been afraid of getting his chequebook out.
He may need to again before 5pm on August 8.
Financial Fair Play is, of course, a thing in the modern world and Forest have fallen foul of those regulations in the past.
There is no indication that history will repeat itself.
Which means that investment – after seeing sizeable 12 months back – will be most welcome over the course of the next fortnight.
Forest legend Garry Birtles has said in the Nottingham Post: “Time is starting to run out before the start of the season which is now a little over a week away, while the transfer window closes a week beyond that, and no doubt wheels are turning behind the scenes, the window of opportunity to get players in and ready before the West Brom game is diminishing.
“What I wouldn’t want to see, though, are strikers coming in to play second fiddle to [Lewis] Grabban.
“If it means paying good money for someone, then so be it.
“It needs to be a player with quality, one who can come in and hit the ground running and challenge him for a starting place because good quality competition is vital.”
Priority
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Birtles is the latest to suggest that another frontman needs to be the top priority for Forest.
He’s not wrong.
Lewis Grabban and Tyler Walker cannot and should not be expected to bear the weight of goal-scoring expectation between them – with Daryl Murphy still hanging around as things stand.
Another proven performer is required.
And they do not come cheap.
The Reds are, however, seemingly set to receive an injection of funds from the sale of Ben Osborn to Sheffield United.
That fee can be added to whatever is already in the pot.
A bar was raised in the summer of 2018, with Grabban and Joao Carvalho forming part of an elaborate influx of fresh faces.
A repeat is not necessarily required, with Tiago Silva and Yuri Ribeiro the only players to have been acquired for money so far this year, but at least one big cheque – in a window of few at the City Ground – is probably going to be needed in order to get Lamouchi’s squad ready for a top-six challenge.
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