Rio Ferdinand aims dig at Nottingham Forest while speaking about Crystal Palace live on air

Add as preferred source on Google

Rio Ferdinand randomly aimed a dig at Nottingham Forest while analysing the Premier League clash between Crystal Palace and Manchester City.

The TNT Sports pundit was speaking alongside Joe Cole at Selhurst Park after Manchester City’s 4-2 win earlier on Saturday when he made the comment about Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side.

So, what did Rio Ferdinand say about Nottingham Forest? Let’s take a look…

What Rio Ferdinand said about Nottingham Forest

Well, the 45-year-old and Cole were eulogising over Crystal Palace’s recruitment of young talent, naming the likes of Ebere Eze, Michael Olise and Adam Wharton as examples.

When going into more detail on the latter – who was signed in a £22m deal from Blackburn back in January – Ferdinand noted the fact the England U21 international has gone straight into Crystal Palace’s starting XI and is playing, something he suggests Nottingham Forest have been particularly bad at doing with new recruits.

The TNT Sports pundit quipped: “He’s playing though, that’s the main thing! Other clubs – Forest – haven’t always done that.”

Nottingham Forest signed so many players after coming up – mainly due to a unique contract situation with many deals expiring, as Martin Keown touched on earlier this week.

That made recruitment particularly tough, as Nottingham Forest needed to sign players to improve the starting XI – but also buy options to pad out the squad and provide depth, so of course, some did not go straight into the lineup like Wharton has at Crystal Palace.

Quality not quantity

Nottingham Forest now have a fantastic squad with many options.

Even big names such as Divock Origi and Gio Reyna, who Nottingham Forest are happy with despite a lack of game time, were left on the bench in the 3-1 win over Fulham on Tuesday.

Now, the focus should be on signing quality over quantity.

Nottingham Forest have done the hard part and packed out the squad, but it is now a case of fine tuning the playing staff this summer.

There will be a lot of deadwood to shift regardless of what division Nottingham Forest find themselves in, and hopefully, the Reds never find themselves needing to embark on such a chaotic recruitment drive in future.