With Nottingham Forest now a Premier League club, big-name players arriving has become common practice on Trentside.
Since promotion was secured in May 2022, Evangelos Marinakis has left no stone unturned in his quest to establish Forest among the country’s elite football clubs.
The likes of Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jesse Lingard, and Renan Lodi have all arrived after having built reputations with their former clubs.
Players like Morgan Gibbs-White, Murillo and Danilo have been added as burgeoning talents who could have an endless amount of resale value.
It hasn’t always been like this at Forest though. The famous Billy Davies once coined the phrase, ‘If you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win the lottery’, when it came to transfers.
That approach came after Forest managed to snare Aaron Ramsey on loan in 2010 and Davies tried to make another ambitious swoop when he returned to the club in 2013 that even he couldn’t pull off.
Kyle Walker shares how close Nottingham Forest came to signing Gareth Bale
Bale was a youngster at Tottenham when it emerged that Forest wanted to sign him with Davies desperate to strengthen his left-back options.
Despite going on and becoming one of the most flamboyant wingers that the Premier League has ever seen, Harry Redknapp viewed him as a left-back as a youngster.
Forest were mightily close to signing him on loan but it was an injury to Benoit Assou-Ekotto that scuppered any plans of a major coup for Davies.
Kyle Walker told the Danny Rose and The Full Back Reunion podcast: “You had Gareth Bale and Danny Rose playing at left-back. I can remember coming back from a loan at Sheffield United, I signed and went directly on loan and then Harry called me back.
“I went back and we were on the top pitch and Gareth were there and he was saying I am going Nottingham Forest. All of a sudden, Benoit got injured and Gareth went and did what he did. It’s all about luck, you need quality.”
Gareth Bale became one of the world’s best players
Forest have Assou-Ekotto to thank for robbing them of seeing Bale in the Garibaldi, whilst Bale probably has him to thank for becoming one of the world’s top players.
That was the big break he needed and after smashing it with Tottenham he earned a move to Real Madrid where he won five Champions League titles.
In his first spell with Spurs, he would go on and score 55 goals from 203 appearances, moving to Real Madrid in 2013 – not too long after almost joining Forest!
At the Santiago Bernabeu, he scored 106 times in 258 appearances and won a host of titles before rejoining Spurs for a season.
He wasn’t bad then either, scoring 16 goals in 34 outings before sailing off into the sunset and enjoying a retirement season with Los Angeles FC.
Things could have been so much different and for Forest, Bale might forever be remembered as the ultimate player who got away from the club’s grasp.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
