Nottingham Forest allowed a number of players to leave the club during the summer with over 20 surplus players packing their bags and waving goodbye to Trentside.
For Forest last season became all about remaining in the Premier League with some intriguing recruitment almost derailing the campaign.
Although the club had done some very good permanent business, the goalkeeper recruitment and the loan market both proved shambolically bad.
It’s hard to make a claim that any of the loan signings contribute to the campaign, with all of them across the campaign being sent back to their clubs.
Andrey Santos played for just seven minutes before being sent back to Chelsea, with Rodrigo Ribeiro playing for around 15 minutes during the second half of the season.
Elsewhere, Gonzalo Montiel and Nuno Tavares failed to make any real impact at full-back and Giovanni Reyna’s arrival looked promising but never delivered.
Nuno Tavares earns rave reviews after transfer to Lazio
The Portuguese defender was expected to kick on under Nuno Espirito Santo but things didn’t quite work out that way.
Although he was given plenty of minutes to start with under the Forest head coach, inconsistent form and injuries curtailed his aspirations of a proper chance to shine.
In the summer, Tavares joined Lazio on another loan from Arsenal and it would appear that he’s already making an impact in Serie A.
The 24-year-old has quickly got himself into the team and he’s claimed four assists from his first four appearances for the club.
Tavares has been praised by the national media for his efforts too, with La Gazzetta dello Sport calling his recent form ‘unstoppable’ in a familiar left-back position for Lazio.
Tavares never made the grade at Forest
The alarm bells should have run for Forest fans from the moment he was signed based on the fact that Djed Spence rinsed him during an FA Cup tie against Arsenal during the 2021/22 campaign.
On that occasion, he was subbed after less than 30 minutes and his spell at Forest in the Garibaldi wasn’t much more emphatic.
Forest have seriously upgraded the left-back position this term with Ola Aina and Alex Moreno now competing for the position in Espirito Santo’s team.
Tavares is still young and it’s not really a surprise to see him doing great things at Lazio given that he starred on loan at Marseille before joining Forest.
However, his time at the City Ground won’t live long in the memory and after just nine outings under Espirito Santo, it was always unlikely he would be signed permanently.
Tavares surely has no future at Arsenal and it would appear he’s doing a great job of putting himself in the shop window for Lazio.
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