Nottingham Forest have made a loan offer to Besiktas in an attempt to land striker Guven Yalcin, according to Turkish reports. The Reds are desperately trying to add to their squad before next week’s deadline.
The 22-year-old spent last season on loan with Leece in Italy. He signed for the Turkish club in 2018 after rising through the youth ranks with Bayer Leverkusen.
Although he has a decent pedigree as a young player, his 2020/21 campaign is nothing for Forest fans to really get excited about.
In 11 appearances playing in the Italian second division, he failed to score and seemingly didn’t take particularly well to first-team football.
He is a proven goalscorer at youth level. He was prolific with both the under-17 and under-19 ranks at Leverkusen and started life well with Besiktas.
He’s found the net 14 times in 69 outings for the Istanbul-based club, although a large percentage of his appearances have come from the bench.
According to Who Scored, Yalcin is the type of striker who puts a strong sift in and looks to receive through balls from his teammates.
It is claimed, however, that he struggles in the air and doesn’t cross the ball well – although that’s not really a typical remit for a striker.
Would Yalcin improve Forest?
Given the current style of football under Chris Hughton, it’s going to take more than a new striker to improve Forest.
The Reds have struggled to create chances for whoever has played in attack. Until that changes it doesn’t matter who is operating as the striker.
Forest should probably steer clear of Yalcin. Although he fits the profile of a Dane Murphy player, his stats aren’t overly convincing.
He sounds similar to Lewis Grabban and Lyle Taylor in terms of playing style and adding a third player in that ilk doesn’t make sense.
This could just be ideal agent talk trying to get his player hooked up ahead of the transfer deadline. Forest fans will hope that is the case. Instead, they will have optimism the club can target someone with more experience at Championship level.