Nottingham Forest have enjoyed some seriously talented players coming through their academy over the years.
Given that the club has been out of the Premier League for a long time, naturally many of their talented youngsters have been sold.
That can’t really be helped given the nature of modern-day football.
Some players have been sold and done very little, whilst others have firmly had the club’s scratching their heads at how they let one slip through the net.
With the international break now upon us, we looked at two good and two bad deals that Forest have done involving the exits of talented academy starlets.
Good – Arvin Appiah
Forest managed to offload the young winger for £8 million – much to the dismay of some supporters.
The 20-year-old made just eight appearances for the Reds, scoring once in a League Cup game against Burton Albion.
Forest accepted a bid from Almeria and that fee looks quite astonishing at this stage.
Since leaving England he has made 39 appearances for the Segunda Division outfit and 11 appearances on loan at CD Lugo in the same division.
Bad – Matty Cash
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but quite how Aston Villa managed to nab Cash from Forest for just £16 million doesn’t make sense.
The Reds should have possibly held out for a bigger fee and Cash is busy making a mockery of his price tag.
He has grown into one of the best right-backs in the Premier League at Villa Park and is now set for his Poland debut.
Forest could have probably demanded closer to £20 million for Cash given his quality and potential.
Good – Oliver Burke
Make no bones about it, when Forest sold Oliver Burke you could hear the sounds of hearts breaking across Nottingham.
He had taken the City Ground by storm at the start of the 2016/17 campaign and blew Leeds away the day before he was sold.
Forest got £13 million for the teenager and at the time it seemed as though the club had been robbed of the crown jewels.
Five years on and Burke has done very little. Some Sheffield United fans would even consider him among their worst ever signings.
Bad – Ben Brereton Diaz
The Chilean version of Ben Brereton is proving far more likeable and more of a menace in front of goal than the one which left Forest.
Brereton Diaz cost Blackburn £7 million in 2018. It took him almost 18 months to net a league goal for the club and Forest were seemingly laughing.
Now a Chilean international, the youngster scored nine times in over 50 appearances for the Reds and the sale seemed like good business.
This season, however, he’s near the top of the scoring charts with 13 goals in 18 games for Rovers.
He’s also scored three times in eight appearances for Chile and looks set to embark on next year’s World Cup.
Hindsight really is wonderful, eh?
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