Newcastle defeat could be just the start of a long season for Nottingham Forest
After a summer of basking in their play-off final success — beating Huddersfield Town 1-0 in a rather nervy affair at Wembley Stadium — Nottingham Forest were brought back down to earth after realising the harsh reality of the Premier League on the opening day of the 2022-23 campaign.
A win against a Newcastle United side on the up and with high expectations of finishing in a European spot this season after a mega-money Saudi takeover was hardly expected at St James’ Park, but Steve Cooper’s men could barely get into the game a 2-0 defeat. Given the Magpies’ dominance of the ball, it was arguably a generous scoreline for Forest.
Of course, this is a squad who have very little Premier League experience and they still need to adjust and adapt to life in the top flight of English football. That might come with time for Forest, and summer recruits like Jesse Lingard and Dean Henderson — although still somewhat of a novice keeper — from Manchester United can potential add some crucial experience as the season progresses.
As well as those Old Trafford recruits, Forests’ owner Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Greek giants Olympiacos, has splashed the cash this off-season — spending over £100 million on the likes Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin, Liverpool’s Neco Williams (both around £18m) and midfielder Orel Mangal from Stuttgart for almost £12m.
With four summer signings in total from the German Bundesliga and others from places like France and Costa Rica, the majority of Forests’ new arrivals are going to need a bedding in period. But they could find themselves in a tricky spot, as they travel to Everton and then face Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City before the month is over — games they won’t be fancied to win the online betting.
The good news for Forest fans is that Marinakis hasn’t tightened his purse strings just yet. The 55-year-old made a commitment to spending after his club won the play-offs back in May, returning to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years, and he has stuck to his guns with more fresh faces still to come before the window slams shut at the end of the month.
But spending more and more money doesn’t always guarantee safety. It looks good on paper, and of course, keeps the fans off the board’s back. But Forests’ transfer policy seems a bit chaotic when you delve in to it a bit deeper, with links and potential deals being made left, right and centre, and it’s not really clear how much of a say Cooper is really having on the players coming in — which is always a cause for concern.
Forest aren’t the first newly promoted side to spend over £100m in a bid to secure top flight status beyond one season. Many will remember Fulham’s dire campaign when in 2018-19 — when they finished second bottom with just 26 points — and it would be no surprise to see Forest suffer a similar feat come the end of this year.
There are more ‘winnable’ games for the Nottingham side coming up after a tough end to this month, with Bournemouth (H), Leeds United (A), Fulham (H), Leicester City (A), Aston Villa (H) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (A) not the worst run of fixtures by any means.
Those six weeks or so will give us more of an indication of how Forest are really going to fare this season perhaps more than their opening three or four games. Although there is clearly still a lot of work to be done behind the scenes of the City Ground — because this is looking like it might be a long season for the Forest fans.
