Nottingham Forest have signed some weird and wonderful players since Evangelos Marinakis came to the club.
Some of these have worked out, some haven’t and others simply haven’t even been spotted wearing the famous Garibaldi before they’ve been offloaded.
Marinakis wanted a striker in January. He wasn’t successful on that occasion but given that Forest are third in the Premier League, it shows that the owner just loves to sign players.
No stone has been left unturned when it comes to scouting new players. During the 2018/19 campaign, the Reds added some seriously random players during the January window.
Molla Wague was added along with Alex Milosevic and Yoane Benalouane to bolster the Forest defensive ranks forest. Pele – not that one – was also added from Monaco, whilst Leo Bonatini signed on loan from Wolves.
Yohan Benalouane signs for Nottingham Forest
This felt like a bit of a strange signing, to say the least. Benalouane had not played much football, although it was clear at the time that Forest needed some more defenders in their ranks.
Benalouane actually checked in from East Midlands rivals Leicester. He had slipped down the pecking order with the Foxes and opted to sign for Forest to try and enhance the chances of a play-off place.
Martin O’Neill’s football rather than Benalouane hampered the chances of a successful end to the season. Fans under the Miracle Man left games that Forest had won feeling short-changed such was the anti-football approach to games.
Benalouane stayed at the club until October 2020 but managed just 16 appearances and fell way off the radar once Sabri Lamouchi had replaced O’Neill during the summer of 2019.
Benalouane silences Derby County
It’s hard not hard to decifer what Benalouane’s best moment in a Forest shirt was and wearing a protective face mask he scored the winning goal against Derby during the 2018/19 campaign.
The Rams would go on and reach the Play-Off Final that year – losing it to Aston Villa – and Frank Lampard’s team arrived at the City Ground in fine form looking to retain the Brian Clough Trophy.
After just two minutes of the City Ground clash, Benalouane etched his name into Forest folklore. Some loose defending from Derby allowed Daryl Murphy to head across the six-yard box where Benalouane pounced to tap home and spark delirium.
It’s quite remarkable that players who don’t always have the best of times with certain clubs can become cult heroes simply by scoring against the enemy and that is exactly what Benalouane will be fondly remembered for at Forest.
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