The wait is finally over, Nottingham Forest return to Premier League action later today for their 2024/25 season opener against Bournemouth.
Forest fans will be making the trip to the City Ground ahead of what could be the start to a very interesting season.
Nuno Espirito Santo has been backed with a clear transfer strategy this summer with seven new faces having now landed at the club.
After weeks of negotiations, Forest finally secured the signing of Ramon Sosa on Friday night after he travelled from South America to undergo his medical.
Out of the seven new signings, Nuno will likely be able to select from five of them with Marko Stamenic on loan at Olympiacos and Sosa having been announced after the midday deadline.
With that in mind, here is, for the first time this season, Nottingham Forest News’ predicted XI…
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Nikola Milenkovic earns his Forest debut
Having signed halfway through the pre-season trip to Spain, Nikola Milenkovic has now had plenty of time to settle in to life in England.
The Serbian defender has looked solid when called upon in the pre-season friendlies he has featured in and looks ready to form a partnership with Murillo.
There will have been major question marks coming into the summer as to whether Murillo was going to leave Forest with big clubs interested.
However, it now looks as if Forest are going into the new campaign with a centre-back pairing which a lot of sides in the top flight could well envy.
Ola Aina gets the nod at left-back
Coming into the summer, left-back was a position which Forest will have likely had on their mind to strengthen in the market.
One of their believed targets will no longer be joining after Bradley Locko ruptured his achilles earlier this week in training.
But fear not, Ola Aina has enjoyed a seriously impressive pre-season having earned some big praise for his performance in the game against Villarreal.
It will be interesting to see whether Aina can nail down that spot at left-back this season or whether Forest look to bring in another player before the transfer deadline.
Matz Sels keeps out Carlos Miguel in goal
One of the first signings made this summer, Carlos Miguel has been fighting for the starting spot between the sticks.
However, Nuno may not have seen quite enough from Miguel just yet to convince him that he has done enough to uproot the Belgian from between the sticks.
Anthony Elanga has admitted Miguel has impressed the Forest players of the pitch, but when it comes to the action on it, it could be questioned whether he’s shown enough.
It would be the safe choice to stick with Sels.
Nottingham Forest predicted XI vs Bournemouth: Sels; Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Aina; Sangare, Danilo; Elanga, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
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