Nottingham Forest trying to sign a striker looked about as dramatic as a Line of Duty finale at certain times, with the club fighting tooth and nail for a new talisman.
Ultimately, the search ended in vain, with Nuno Espirito Santo pleading with Evangelos Marinakis to save his money and not sign someone for the sake of it.
Forest have Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi as the two strikers in the first-team squad – with both getting the nod to start in attack for Forest against Fulham on Saturday.
The experiment only lasted 45 minutes with Awoniyi subbed at the interval but Wood has scored three goals so far this season, picking up where he left off during 2023/24.
Santiago Gimenez was one striker that Forest targeted but he rejected the club on no fewer than three occasions – if, of course, you believe what gets written in newspapers.
Eddie Nketiah was also set for a move to Forest but changed his mind after a chat with Oliver Glasner at Crystal Palace, signing for the Eagles instead.
There were other options on the shortlist for Forest but in the end, the Reds chose to attack the first half of the campaign with what they already have in place.
Nottingham Forest-linked striker now outperforming Harry Kane
With Gimenez and Nketiah both off the radar, Forest turned their attention to Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush.
The 25-year-old is a speed demon and for a while, Forest were in talks over a £28 million deal, although Frankfurt didn’t want to lose him.
Now, it’s quite easy to see why Frankfurt talked Marmoush out of joining Forest, with the striker taking his game to the next level.
Marmoush scored twice and registered two assists yesterday as Frankfurt won 4-2 against Holstein Kiel away from home.
That puts him on six goals and five assists in all competitions for the 2024/25 campaign and his valuation will have soared to unreachable heights from a Forest perspective.
He now has more goals than Harry Kane, with the England man bagging five goals and claiming four assists so far this season for Bayern Munich.
Marmoush would have been risky signing for Forest
Although he’s banging the goal in for the Bundesliga outfit, there is no saying that he’d have done the same with Forest in the Premier League.
The English top-flight is unforgiving and Marmoush would have been required to prove himself over a period of time.
That said, Forest have created chances in most games this season – with Saturday’s defeat to Fulham the exception – and that would have helped Marmoush.
Signing him now looks like a complete long shot, with Frankfurt likely to receive interest from European clubs far bigger than Forest in the future.
A striker will remain on the shortlist at the City Ground, however, and it will be interesting to see which names crop up next.
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