Nottingham Forest signed a mixed bag of footballers during the summer transfer window of 2022 with some having more success than others.
It proved a summer of chaos from a Forest perspective. After winning promotion, five loan players returned to their parent clubs, whilst Lewis Grabban and Brice Samba both decided to leave the City Ground.
That left Steve Cooper with a threadbare group of players. As a result, Forest had to get busy and by the time the transfer window had slammed shut at the end of August, the Reds had signed a staggering 23 new players.
Seven more would join in the January window of that season and Forest did manage to stay in the Premier League with Cooper working miraculously to blend together so many players in such a short space of time.
Morgan Gibbs-White proved the most successful signing of that summer. He was the club’s record signing at the time and he remains an important figure to this day, captaining the team when Ryan Yates isn’t called upon.
Italian media think Nottingham Forest missed a trick with Remo Freuler
Freuler was signed from Atalanta for a fee of £8 million. He had vast experience with the Serie A outfit and during the 2021/22 campaign, he captained the team during a Champions League campaign that saw them face Manchester United.
The experienced midfielder was often deployed in a system that didn’t really suit him at Forest. Cooper strived to blend so many players together but ultimately, Freuler was tasked with doing lots of running and that just isn’t his game.
Yesterday, Tuttomercatoweb studied the player. They believe that Freuler has added a winning mentality to Bologna and claim that Forest ‘failed to exploit’ the key attributes that the Swiss performer brings to the table.
Freuler made 33 appearances for Forest without registering a goal or an assist. He did score a well-taken penalty, however, during a Carabao Cup quarter-final victory over Wolves with the Reds prevailing during a shootout.
Freuler thriving at Bologna
It’s claimed in the report that Bologna sporting director Giovanni Sartari was the orchestrator behind the deal, deciding to bring him to the club in the summer of 2023.
Forest let Freuler leave initially on loan with the Reds taking Nicolas Dominguez from the Serie A outfit for £8 million and it’s fair to say that the Argentine performer does look like a better fit when it comes to the Premier League.
Freuler is a regular in the Bologna team and has been called upon to captain the team this season. In total, he’s made 67 appearances for the Italian outfit, scoring once and registering three assists since arriving at the club.
Forest never saw the best of Freuler and perhaps Cooper could have helped with that. A player like the man with 11 goals for Switzerland needs to be played in his best position and ultimately he never got the chance to do that at the City Ground.
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