Nottingham Forest were extremely active in the summer transfer window again – although perhaps not quite as active as the club has been in previous windows.
The Reds managed to get 11 new faces through the door and that has allowed the club to have two players for pretty much every single position.
Furthermore, over 20 players departed this summer. Moussa Niakhate, Orel Mangala, Joe Worrall and Odysseas Vlachodimos were the most high-profile players to leave.
On deadline day, Forest remained very relaxed this summer. Only two players – Morato and James Ward-Prowse – were added to take the summer player tally to 11 incoming stars.
Forest did try to sign other players during the transfer window and it would appear that one player in particular was pretty close to signing for the Reds has the window drew to a close.
Agent confirms how close Edoardo Bove came to Nottingham Forest move
The Roma midfielder has fallen way down the pecking order since Jose Mourinho departed the Serie A outfit. He subsequently joined Fiorentina – but Forest were extremely keen on the player.
His agent, Diego Tavano has now been interviewed by Tifo Granata and he’s claimed that Forest were the hottest club in the mix to sign Bove before his cross-Serie A switch.
He said: “It was a special summer for Edoardo. We can’t explain why, but there wasn’t room for him at Roma and so we started looking around. There were several solutions: the hottest was Nottingham [Forest], but also Ligue 1.
“Having brought (Michael) Richardson before him during the summer, I understood that Fiorentina had something important to say. In Florence, there is a great history as well as a serious club with a high-level project, as demonstrated by Viola Park.”
Forest were right to sign Ward-Prowse over Bove during summer window
Nothing against Bove but with Danilo out injured, Forest perhaps needed more Premier League experience and that is certainly what Ward-Prowse will bring to the Forest ranks.
Mourinho was a big fan of Bove and raved about him during his time in charge of Roma. However, he’s never played in England and as a loan signing there might have just been too much of a adaptation period.
Forest did well to prioritise the players they wanted during the summer, rather than making signings for the sake of it. Although Bove doesn’t look like a particularly bad player, his signing might have felt like too much of a risk.
However, it does seem as though the club pushed hard to try to get him. As a result, it will be interesting to see if he remains on the shortlist for future transfer windows.
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