Nottingham Forest have had to withstand a barrage of criticism from a bunch of ignorant pundits and journalists for a long time over their recruitment model.
When Forest first won promotion to the Premier League, the strategy deserved critique. The Reds landed 30 new players that season with a scattergun approach evident.
Last summer, things improved a little bit – although the club still utilised the loan market poorly and wasted significant sums on two dud goalkeepers; Matt Turner and Odysseas Vlachodimos.
During the recent window, Forest managed to dispel the recruitment myth. The club offloaded over 20 players and signed 11, with two of them – Marko Stamenic and David Carmo – joining Olympiacos on loan.
Pundits are starting to back down, with Alan Brazil the latest to praise Forest and hopefully, Forest can continue to prove people wrong.
Jamie Carragher says Nottingham Forest have two players better than Brennan Johnson
Well, wonders will never cease. Hold the front page because Carragher has dared to say something remotely positive about the recruitment at Forest.
After the first game of the season, Carragher predicted where Forest would finish this season – and it didn’t make solid reading for the fan base.
Now, however, he’s been singing the praises of the recruitment team and believes two players in the current ranks are possibly better than Brennan Johnson.
He told The Overlap: “You look at the deal you did, you sold Brennan Johnson for £50 million and you’ve signed Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
“So you’ve got two players and walk away with £25 million and you could argue that the two players you’ve got are better if not are at least on the same level as Brennan Johnson.”
Forest recruitment deserves praise for efforts over the last 12 months
The loan market wasn’t used well at all last year but even that element of the recruitment has improved this time around.
Forest used their two domestic spaces this time on experienced players Alex Moreno and James Ward-Prowse from Aston Villa and West Ham respectively.
The permanent recruitment has been positive too, with Nikola Milenkovic, Jota Silva and Ramon Sosa all making an impact so far this season.
It’s time that some of the lazier pundits stopped being so ignorant towards Forest and accepted that Evangelos Marinakis is worthy of praise.
Hopefully, the team can continue thriving under his leadership and more good results can be on the horizon in the near future.
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