Nottingham Forest were hot on the heels to sign Santiago Gimenez during the summer transfer window but the club’s attempts proved in vain.
The Reds were looking for some firepower and identified the Mexican talisman as a top target.
It was a long-running saga that seemingly saw Gimenez change his mind about joining Forest on more than one occasion.
The club ended up not signing a striker in the end and must now throw their faith in Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi.
Gimenez, valued at £29 million looked like a player with the ideal profile to join the current Forest squad and now it remains to be seen whether he will be one that got away.
Rene van der Gijp thinks Nottingham Forest won’t rue missing out on Santiago Gimenez
The former PSV and Sparta Rotterdam player has been discussing the ability of Gimenez following Forest missing out on his signature.
He doesn’t actually think the Reds will regret this one too much – remaining unconvinced that he’s good enough for the Premier League.
Van der Gijp told Soccernews in the Netherlands: “If you see Gimenez playing for six months, the Premier League is the very last competition he should go to.
“Physically, he can’t handle that at all. He’s no longer a shadow of the player he was during the first six months at Feyenoord.”
Gimenez would have been a risk for Forest
At one point it looked as though a £33 million bid for Gimenez was going to be accepted and things heated up at one point.
However, that would have been a risk given that the strikers who have come from the Eredivisie to the Premier League have been very hit-and-miss.
Naturally, there is risk attached to any deal that a club like Forest completes but the striker chase is one that the club needs to get right.
At the moment, Wood is scoring goals and that ensures that there is no major urgency to get one over the line.
Having another option would have been ideal to complement the squad but it wasn’t quite as desperate as some people had made out.
These comments from Van der Gijp are intriguing, to say the least, and clearly he doesn’t think Gimenez is remotely good enough for the Premier League.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
