Nottingham Forest are in the market for more new players this summer – with a striker likely to be close to the top of the transfer wishlist compiled by Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Reds have enjoyed a less frantic pre-season and with the campaign set to get underway on Saturday, there could be five new players involved against Bournemouth.
Elliot Anderson, Carlos Miguel, Nikola Milenkovic, Jota Silva and Eric da Silva Moreira will all be pushing for a place in the team when the Cherries visit the City Ground this weekend.
It’s a striker that most of the fan base are craving, however. The transfer window closes at the end of the month and it’s a new talisman to go alongside Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi that is really sought.
How much Nottingham Forest will have to spend on a striker
This is very much the million dollar question and to try and find out some more information Nottingham Forest News spoke to TBR’s Head of Football Finance and Governance Content, Adam Williams.
Ever the voice of knowledge when it comes to finances within football clubs and he’s now given us some information on the striker search at Forest – and also how the land lies with regards to PSR.
Williams said: “In terms of PSR, Forest have slightly more flexibility as they are now in their third season in the Premier League.
“That means their allowable losses are up to £105m as opposed to £83m, as they were last season.
“Analysis from the likes of Swiss Ramble, whose expertise I will always defer to on this stuff, projected that they needed to keep losses for 2023-24 to £4m in order to avoid a breach.
“We don’t have the accounts for 2023-24 yet, so let’s take that £4m figure as a rough starting point.
“Add their £69m loss the previous season and you’ve got a £73m aggregate loss for the current three-year monitoring period.
“There are a lot of unknowables in terms of how high their amortisation and wage bill will be, plus things like bonuses for staying up etc.
“But with PSR deductible expenses, like investment in infrastructure and youth development, I think they are clearly a lot more comfortable than they were last term.
“And given that any new signings will be amortised over five years whereas player sale profit is booked immediately for PSR purposes, their positive net in the summer window will give them more wriggle room.
“It’s not a free hit – they need to be mindful that you have to effectively ‘pay off’, in PSR terms, these signings until 2029. As we’ve seen at Forest and elsewhere, you can pretty quickly approach critical mass.
“But it does give them breathing space if they want to use it. In theory, I reckon they could pretty comfortably go and spend £25-30m on a striker. Whether they do or not is another question.”
Forest need to go all out for a new centre-forward
Nothing against Wood – scorer of 14 Premier League goals last season – or Awoniyi but a stellar addition at the top end of the pitch would really get the juices going among the fan base.
Forest haven’t really signed a striker to act as a first-choice in the starting eleven since adding Awoniyi to the ranks shortly after the club won promotion back to the Premier League.
Now – as per Williams’ comments – it looks as though there will be some money in the bank to land a striker and that does bode well for Forest ahead of the window closing.
One thing Forest haven’t done this summer is waste money. Every signing looks to have been meticulously planned and none of the six players added to the ranks have broken the bank.
Hopefully the same can be said about the striker search when the time does come to press ahead with a deal for a new talisman.
Several players have already been linked with a move to the club and now it will be fascinating to see what Forest do – and how much they spend – when it comes to a sought-after striker.
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