Jota Silva has had a mixed start to life at Nottingham Forest, with reports of moves that the club tried to make in the transfer window suggesting that his time in Nottingham could be limited.
When Silva signed for Forest in the summer, he arrived with some level of expectation after scoring 15 goals in the top flight in Portugal last season for Vitoria de Guimaraes.
Before he even settled at the City Ground, Silva was linked with a loan move to Olympiacos which was a slight warning sign for Forest fans, but he remained at the club going into the Premier League season.
He has never become a starting member at the club, Darren Fletcher was disappointed with Silva against Ipswich in December which didn’t bode well for his ongoing chances of replacing Anthony Elanga in Nuno Espirito Santo’s starting lineup.
Things only got worse on Tuesday night as Forest fans blasted Silva’s performance against Exeter in the FA Cup, which makes the recent reports about a January move Forest made even more concerning.
Nottingham Forest made bid for Baris Yilmaz
On the eve of the January window, Forest looked at Baris Yilmaz as a potential winger to replace the struggling Silva, but that deal never seemed to come to fruition.
However, according to Turkish media outlet Haber Sarikirmizi, Forest’s interest in Yilmaz became more concrete than first realised.
The report said: “Nottingham Forest made an offer of €20+5m to Galatasaray for Barış Alper Yılmaz during the transfer window. Barış often receives offers.”
Such a significant offer does suggest that Evangelos Marinakis had a genuine interest in adding another attacking option to the Forest squad, but potentially more as a replacement for Silva than an addition to the Portuguese winger.
Alongside the fans, even Roy Keane was critical of Silva against Exeter for his struggling display, which pales in comparison to the numbers that Yilmaz is managing for Galatasaray this season.
Baris Yilmaz is streets ahead of Jota Silva statistically this season
Clearly, the two wingers are of different levels of importance to their respective sides, but their respective stats per 90 minutes still make difficult reading for Silva.
| Stats (per 90) | Jota Silva | Baris Yilmaz |
| Pass accuracy | 66.2% | 76.7% |
| Successful dribbles | 1.16 | 1.91 |
| Shots on target | 0.39 | 1.21 |
| Expected goals | 0.13 | 0.30 |
Ignoring Yilmaz’s ten goals to Silva’s two, the Turkish star completes over 10% more of his passes, as well as 0.75 more dribbles per game, showing he has the ability to be more creative than Silva too.
He also dwarfs Silva in the shots on target and expected goals categories, showing that his goalscoring threat would be more valuable to the Forest manager than what Silva is currently offering.
In a recent interview, Silva admitted to wanting to play in the Champions League with Forest which is a possibility for the club next season, but the Portuguese winger may have already been moved on by then to make way for the likes of Yilmaz.
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