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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Sarah Clapson

Nottingham Forest £100m transfer claim made as Evangelos Marinakis set to back Steve Cooper

Nottingham Forest are set to splash the cash this summer, following promotion to the Premier League.

Owner Evangelos Marinakis has already invested heavily in the Reds since he bought the club five years ago. And he has pledged to back Steve Cooper in the transfer market in the coming weeks, as the head coach gets the chance to put his stamp on the squad.

According to The Times, Cooper will be given a budget of between £75m and £100m to spend on new players. Last summer, only three top-flight sides spent more than that amount - Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal.

Read more: Full list of 21 players linked with Forest ahead of big summer transfer window

Read more: Pope, Spence, Gibbs-White - Forest transfer state of play as rumours rated

It will be a busy window at the City Ground, with a number of incomings and outgoings expected before the deadline of 11pm on Thursday, September 1. However, Forest are determined to spend wisely.

“Now is the time to give Steve all the ammunition he needs, to be able to not only survive but bring some good results,” Marinakis said last week. “We have to invest more.

“Everybody talks about the television rights and money that comes in, but it is not enough for clubs in the first year. That’s why we must not be the poorer relatives of the Premier League.

“We need to buy some good players and some that will make the difference and have the experience who know the division. We need to be careful how we spend and make the right choices.”

CEO Dane Murphy, meanwhile, has outlined a plan for “balanced and purposeful investment” in all areas of the club. He is also keen to keep together the “band of brothers” which delivered the Reds’ return to the top-flight after a 23-year absence.

“We have a very strong owner who is not afraid to invest in the club and make sure it becomes the Premier League club it should be, in all facets of the business,” he has said. “At the same time, there have been a few clubs who have gone up and spent an inordinate amount of money and then gone back down, and it hasn’t worked.

“In recent years, you can look at Brighton and Brentford, even Sheffield United in the first year they went up, they didn’t spend a lot of money, they kept a core group of players that brought them up and tried to build off it. Sometimes in the second year it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“I think it’s finding the balance between investing and making your team that much better to compete week in, week out, but still having your core group of guys. We have five loans, they all contributed - some pushed us beyond the mark. If we could get some of them back for next season and make them our players, we’re going to try to do that.”

Bumper Forest promotion special - 48-page souvenir now available to buy here

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