Nothing Changes, Just The Names And The Faces (Part Two)

            It's the 10th of January, a third of the way through the transfer window and the press is rife with speculation regarding Nottingham Forest. The Nottingham Post has been reporting for weeks that manager, Aitor Karanka is on the verge of the sack, but why? Forest are in 7th place, 4 points outside the playoffs. Losing the joint fewest games in the league (5), as well as being 6th for goals scored and also for goals conceded. So in simple terms, we're not doing badly.

Karanka with his colleague, fitness coach Carlos Cachada, on the training ground.

          You could argue that given the level of investment in the summer that we ought to be doing better but realistically the squad was very poor before Karanka began rebuilding. £25m is not a lot of money to rebuild a squad in the Championship, Wolves spent more than £65m+ and it took them two years.
          There is rumours circulating that Forest Owner, Evangelos Maranakis, is on good terms with former Fulham Manager, Slavisa Jokanovic, following a previous working relationship, and as he turned down the Stoke job straight away without interview, more rumours are circulating that he has been lined up to replace Karanka.
          The thing is, we aren't far from being a top side. our weakest link in my opinion is the defensive unit. In Pantillimon, Steele and Smith we have three very average goalkeepers, this surely has to be improved upon. In a discussion with @LiamKentFootball and @IlkestonRed on Twitter, we highlighted a number of Premier League clubs with more goalkeepers than they need. Burnley have Nick Pope, Joe Hart, Adam Legzdins, Anders Lindegaard and Tom Heaton. We have been linked with Tom Heaton on loan until the end of the season and I can't think of many better options than him. Southampton as well have three good options between the sticks in Fraser Forster, Angus Gunn and Alex McCarthy. Now its hard to highlight which of the would make the most sense. Forster will have massive wages, Gunn has just broken into the team and McCarthy had been first choice until recently, but again, surely one of them would come out on loan?
          I think we need more depth in defence as well. I'm not opposed to bringing Worrall back from Rangers but could we loan someone in until the end of the season to enable Worrall to keep playing regularly? More than likely. We also need another fullback, ideally one that can play both sides, similar to how Chris Gunter and Eric Lichaj used to do in recent years.

Gunter was signed by Billy Davies when he first took over and was able to play fullback on both sides.

          Other than that, I don't think any more signings are needed. It's just a case of getting shot of the fringe players. Cummings has fallen out of favour whilst on loan and Peterborough, Clough hasn't developed enough while at Rochdale, Bridcutt and Watson have hardly had a look in for us this season, as with Jordan Smith and Daryl Murphy. The Portuguese lads I would afford more time to. Gonclaves hasn't much of an opportunity and in that league cup game against Stoke I thought he did quite well. Gil Dias, he may have made a massive error in the draw with Norwich, but I dare say Karanka wanted to give him some game time while we were in a comfortable position, they may have been the wrong side to try this against in retrospect.
          We have some good young players in the squad that need to either get some game time or go away on loan. Ryan Yates and Arvin Appiah for example. Yates could do with a loan in the Championship, but Appiah could do with a bit of game time here and there whilst learning off the experienced strikers in Grabban, Soundani and Murphy.
          I Believe Karanka is the right man to take this club forward, if he leaves I will obviously support whoever replaces him, but would good does chopping and changing all the time really do? It'd didn't work for the previous regime, why would it work this time?


Until Next Time...

Craig