Nottingham Forest star Alex Moreno has proved a solid loan signing this season but yesterday would have felt like a strange one for him.
The 31-year-old was unavailable to play with Forest taking on his parent club and he was left out against Manchester United last weekend too.
Moreno has developed a strong rapport with the City Ground fan base since checking in for the season from Villa during the summer window.
Against Ipswich it was Moreno who was leading the fist pumps after the Forest win and he’s quicky become a bit of a fan favourite.
Forest will hope to land Moreno on a permanent basis in the future and it would appear that the Reds have a player who is extremely happy on Trentside.
What Alex Moreno did at full-time of Forest win over Aston Villa
As most of the unavailable players often do at Forest, Moreno sat in the block next to the home dugout making the pitch easily accessible at the full-time whistle.
Moreno went onto the pitch and some eagle-eyed supporters viewing the game either on the television or at the City Ground would have seen a very excited left-back.
He went straight over to Nuno Espirito Santo with the pair enjoying a warm embrace and Moreno smiling profusely following the late victory.
Moreno did draw the line at orchestrating the fist pumps on this occasion but nonetheless he was absolutely buzzing at the end of the game.
As he headed back up the tunnel, he also had a warm exchange with owner Evangelos Marinakis and the joy was still etched all over his face.
Forest have to sign Moreno permanently
Signing Moreno was a long time coming for the Reds.
Forest agreed to sign Moreno from Real Betis in 2022 after winning promotion but he had a change of heart and pledged himself to the Seville-based side for another six months.
When Villa came calling he couldn’t say no, however, and for the second half of the 2022/23 campaign he was largely impressive.
Injuries crippled him somewhat last season and when Forest added him to the ranks that was clearly a small reservation.
However, the player has been brilliantly dependable so far this season and right now, it seems obvious that Forest have to go out and sign Moreno on a permanent basis.
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