The extent of Nottingham Forest’s summer shopping spree will have little bearing on what the club look to do in the January transfer window.
Brazilian Gustavo Scarpa has already been brought in on a free transfer, although he will not officially become a Reds player until January 1, when his contract with Palmeiras expires. And further new arrivals will be sanctioned, not least because an expanding injury list is taking its toll.
Eyebrows were raised among pundits when Forest made a British-record 22 signings as they prepared for life in the Premier League, with a general lack of appreciation of the necessity behind such a substantial overhaul. Head coach Steve Cooper accepts the club will be in the spotlight again whenever they strengthen, but says decisions will be made on how the squad looks in the here and now.
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That means taking into account the number of players on the sidelines, as well as the need to bolster a side which is in the bottom three. With owner Evanegelos Marinakis watching on, Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester United was not the return to top-flight action Cooper had hoped for after the World Cup break. And the match also saw Jesse Lingard forced off with what the Reds hope is nothing more than “fatigue in his hamstring”.
“The ownership are at most games, so that is no different,” said the Forest boss. “Just because Mr Marinakis was there doesn’t mean we will be speaking - there is constant communications between ownership and sporting director to me etc. There will be no changes in that way; certainly with January as well.
“Nothing will change just because he was there. There is daily dialogue going on in one way, shape or form. My job day to day is just to work with the team, recover and prepare for the next game, and, when the time is right, deal with what we may need to do with the squad.
“I think we will bring some players in. You say it through gritted teeth a little bit because everybody is like, ‘oh, here we go again’.
“But we can’t be ashamed of that. We’re not. We had to do what we felt was right in the summer.
“The reality is Morgan Gibbs-White is injured, Cheikhou Kouyate has picked up a long-term injury in the World Cup, Jesse has walked off, Moussa Niakhate is injured, Giulian Biancone is injured - and they are long-term injuries. You have to look at the squad for where it is at this moment in time and talk about what you want it to look like going forward.
“We can’t think about going forward on what happened in the summer; we’ve got to look forward in terms of what we think it takes to improve the squad to compete game in, game out.”
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