Nottingham Forest have nine games of this season left yet but already links are taking shape ahead of the summer.
Rewind to the summer of 2022 and Forest were linked with everyone!
The Reds added 30 players across two transfer windows and although the club has learned lessons, that was an approach that proved unsustainable.
In January, Evangelos Marinakis was desperate to sign a striker. However, he was left frustrated as bids for Yoane Wissa and Matheus Cunha bore no fruit.
After back-to-back wins over Manchester City and Ipswich, the chances of Champions League qualification have increased and the links have begun.
However, one of them appears to be both unobtainable and frankly, nonsensical, at this stage.
Nottingham Forest should avoid Brennan Johnson capture
The Reds offloaded Johnson to comply with PSR in the summer of 2023 with Tottenham parting with £47.5 million to sign the Forest academy graduate.
In fairness, he’s taken his game to another level at Tottenham despite the team struggling this season under Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs will likely need to win the Europa League to return to Europe next season and that could see wholesale changes made to the squad.
It was recently claimed that Forest liked the idea of re-signing Johnson, with Tottenham potentially willing to cash in on the forward.
Although Johnson’s stats aren’t bad this season with 14 goals and three assists, there’s an argument that he’s not really want Forest needs right now.
In Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga, the Reds replaced Johnson with two quality players at less than half of the transfer fee received and they have both cemented places in the team.
People will point to Johnson being better than both Ramon Sosa and Jota Silva but ultimately, he would cost a lot to bring back and there’s an argument that better players are out there at a fraction of the price.
Forest have to get recruitment spot on in the summer
It does feel like some form of European football will be gracing the City Ground in the 2025/26 campaign and that means the challenge of next season will be tough.
After narrowly avoiding relegation two seasons on the spin, Forest have really kicked on during the current campaign amid prioritising quality over quantity last summer.
Signing Johnson would be a backwards step. For starters, Daniel Levy is a businessman and there’s no way he would let the forward go on the cheap after just two years at the football club.
Forest did well to get the likes of Nikola Milenkovic and Morato to the club for very small transfer fees and more of that sort of recruitment should be prioritised in the next transfer window instead.
Johnson will always be fondly remembered by the City Ground fan base as a promotion hero and someone who helped keep the club in the Premier League but the prospects of brining him back don’t sit well from a business sense.
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