Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has been criticised for the lateness of the club's transfer business this summer that has left head coach Steve Cooper trying to build a team with the season already underway.
Ten signings have arrived since the Premier League kicked off in early August, though two of them - Hwang Ui-jo and Josh Bowler - were immediately sent out on season-long loans at Olympiacos by the Reds. The eight still a part of the first team for the campaign are Emmanuel Dennis, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Remo Freuler, Morgan Gibbs-White, Renan Lodi, Willy Boly, Loïc Badé and Serge Aurier.
That compares to the 13 players signed across June and July. Garth Crooks believes that more of their business should have been done before August and thinks that this is at the crux of the club's current problems on the pitch.
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"I sense a touch of fatalism with each post-match interview given by Steve Cooper and that the task ahead might be too big," BBC pundit Crooks said. "The owner has not helped by bringing players to the club in August when they should have been there in July.
"Cooper has now got to build a team in September and October which, after the World Cup in November, Forest might just be ready to compete in the Premier League in January or February - by which time they could be too far behind to avoid going down."
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