Nottingham Forest's intriguing £59m January transfer window predicted as Gibbs-White and Elanga bids rejected
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Nottingham Forest are one of only four Premier League clubs to remain unbeaten this season after Sunday’s battling 2-2 draw at Brighton and Hove Albion.
Goals from Chris Wood and summer signing Ramon Sosa were enough to secure a share of the spoils for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men and that ensured Forest sit just two points shy of the top four after winning two and drawing three of their Premier League fixtures. The early signs have been encouraging and a number of summer additions have made a positive impact since moving to the City Ground during the close season.
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Hide AdIt was certainly a hectic window as 11 new faces arrived, with Newcastle United midfielder Elliot Anderson and Fiorentina defender Milenkovic proving to be the most costly at a combined outlay of over £42m. At the other end of the financial scale, Aston Villa left-back Alex Moreno and West Ham United midfielder James Ward-Prowse were brought in on loan deals to add some Premier League experience to the Forest ranks.
There were departures, with the sales of the likes of Moussa Niakhate, Odysseas Vlachodimos and Orel Mangala raking in over £70m. But what could lie ahead for Nuno and Forest during the January transfer window? We fire up Football Manager 2024, use the edit to update the Forest squad to its present state and allow the world’s most popular managerial simulation to predict how the first month of the new year could play out.
Ins
It seems inevitable Forest would have a far quieter January transfer window after the hectic nature of the summer activity at the City Ground. That is not to say there were no new faces added to Nuno’s squad as Forest completed the £17m signing of Crystal Palace left-back Tyrick Mitchell after seeing off competition from Premier League rivals Brentford and Southampton. A loan deal for Manchester United winger Amad Diallo was also secured - although there is no option for a permanent switch for the Red Devils star. A final point of note was Forest rejecting a £35m offer for Morgan Gibbs-White from La Liga club Atletico Madrid and also rebuffed a similar size bids from Benfica and Borussia Dortmund for winger Anthony Elanga.
Outs
Unsurprisingly, Forest took the opportunity to cash in on a trio of defensive players who entered the final six months of their current contracts in the new year. Within the first week of the window opening for business, Ola Aina completed a £9m move to French club Lille and he was quickly followed out of the door by Willy Boly, who joined Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq in a cut-price £5m switch. The last of trio, Harry Toffolo, joined Championship club Norwich City on loan for the remainder of the season during the final 24 hours of the window in a move that effectively brought an end to his City Ground career.
The surprise departure came in the final week of the window as Callum Hudson-Odoi was allowed to join Serie A club Napoli in a deal that landed Forest a cool £28m.
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