Nottingham Forest tried extremely hard to get a new striker to the club in the January transfer window but were thwarted in their efforts.
Evangelos Marinkis was keen to add a striker to provide competition for Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi when the window was open three months ago.
With both strikers currently nursing injuries, it’s come back to bite the Reds a little bit, although it wasn’t through a lack of trying from the club’s perspective.
Forest wanted Yoane Wissa but Brentford held out for £40 million, which felt like an awful lot for a player who is 28-years-old.
Matheus Cunha remains a target for Forest but in January, it proved a non-starter, with the Brazilian choosing to sign a new deal with Wolves who were relegation threatened at the time.
A host of names were linked with Forest and in some cases, perhaps it’s wise that Forest didn’t bow to pressure from the fan base and panic buy a striker.
Nottingham Forest get lucky escape over Evan Ferguson
What a disaster this signing would have proved had Forest beat West Ham to his signature to take him on loan for the remainder of the season.
Graham Potter joining the Hammers gave them the edge with the former Brighton boss working with Ferguson previously.
Some Forest fans believed that Ferguson was tailor-made for the Reds but he’s proved anything but tailor-made for the Premier League at the London Stadium.
Ferguson, 20, is largely viewed as a future star, but he’s yet to bag for West Ham and right now, even Potter is reluctant to throw him in from the start of games.
Forest had Wood bagging the goals in earlier this season and with 18 strikes, it would have been hard for anyone to come in and make an immediate impact.
Given that Ferguson is valued at £60 million by Brighton, however, he would have proved a real flop of a signing had Forest chosen to sign him.
Ferguson could be in limbo this summer
The youngster does have time on his side to prove his vast potential but he’s yet to show it at West Ham this season.
He’s yet to score in six outings for the Hammers and he’s facing a real confidence crisis at the moment.
So far during his young career, Ferguson has proved a bit of a purple patch merchant, with his 17 goals in 80 appearances hardly seeing him pull up any trees in the Premier League.
It feels highly unlikely that Brighton will hand him a reprieve next season given their striker options and his West Ham form could leave him in limbo.
Forest were linked with Ferguson – albeit loosely – and this signing looks very much like a lucky escape from Nuno Espirito Santo’s perspective.
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