Nottingham Forest secured their Premier League survival at the weekend after a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United.
The Reds’ draw came hours before West Ham lost in agonising fashion to Arsenal, and that has seen Forest over the line.
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Now, attention will turn towards recruitment in the summer, with Forest likely to make signings and lose some players too.
As the club finalise their plans, James Perch believes there is one player who could be moved on this summer.
James Perch backs sale of James McAtee
Under Vitor Pereira, a number of fringe players have started to get more minutes and thrive for the first time at the football club.
McAtee has been one of those, but Perch believes that the versatile attacker could be on borrowed time at the City Ground.
He told the Forest Focus podcast: “McAtee is the one that I think we will offload in the summer.
“He hasn’t done quite enough for me for the price tag in terms of his actual potential to get in that Forest team.
“I think he’s found it very hard. Morgan Gibbs-White has gone to the next level since he’s been at the club, so I do think McAtee is the one who you’d go and say, if we can get decent money for him, we’ll look to offload him.
“I don’t think he’s athletic enough. I just think the pitch almost looks too big for him at times, especially when we haven’t got the ball, and he can’t get close to other players.
“He can’t cover space. I don’t like digging players out, but I just don’t think he’s got the legs to be in a side that doesn’t control the ball much of the time.”
McAtee deserves more time at Forest
It has been a very rough season for the man signed for £30 million from Manchester City last summer.
However, it’s not all been his fault, with the form of Gibbs-White and the decision by Sean Dyche to play him out of position proving very detrimental.
With that in mind, McAtee should be afforded more time and with players likely to leave, which in turn could give him more opportunities to play next season.
Perch’s reservations are fair, but given that McAtee is still young, there is perhaps scope for him to stay on Trentside for a little while longer.
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