Transfer Rumour Roundup

Here is a roundup of the latest stuff doing the rounds… Ins and outs this time

Incoming

Graham

Danny Graham

Strong rumours are we are to sign Danny Graham from Sunderland currently on loan from Sunderland. Graham has had a tough couple of years in front of goal and Sunderland might think dropping a level will be able to instigate some form. Graham had better days with Watford and Swansea so has good form in the past and in the Championship. He would be a good signing, if allowed time to find his feet.

Chris Baird
Northern Irish defender who was on a short team deal with Reading which has expired. Due to injury Reading have delayed offering an extension. Therefore he is a free agent. What with a number of defensive injuries Davies might see him as more than adequate coverage in defence. It could mean Lascelles is off, but I think that unlikely.  Baird is versatile so can play in midfield and at all full back which would be of interest to Forest. For freebie he’d be a wonderful signing.

Bradley

Sonny Bradley
Sonny is a 22 year defender for Portsmouth who this week has been linked. He was released by Hull in the summer and has been playing in League Two for struggling Pompey this season. Being from the north (Hull) he may further a move from the south coast closer to home. To be honest I know nothing of this kid. It seems that maybe it’d been a lazy link, but it’s just so random as to surely have something in it, maybe a scout watched him.

Outgoing

Ishmael Miller
Following his loan at Yeovil it looks likely that the Glovers may well come back in for the big striker. Miller has only a short while left on his contract, but Yeovil surely can’t match what we are paying him (believed to be £16k a week) so it would possibly loan till the summer. At which point we don’t care as this waste of moneys contract will have expired.

Matt Derbyshire
Doncaster are being linked with the perennial sub. Derbyshire is getting quite a lot of action from the bench but like Miller he has high wages and an expiring deal. Should we get rid his wages might be able to fund 2/3 incoming players, or even a Premiership one. Despite that goal versus Leeds I would gladly see him move on. His time is up here.

Derbyshire

Karl Darlow
Being linked with a host of Premiership clubs, and supposedly going to be scouted by Liverpool this coming week. Darlow has been consistent, and we wouldn’t be willing to sell, BUT every player has his price and should a silly offer be received then we’d have to entertain it Also Darlow might lose his focus and have his head turned like Lee Camp formerly did.

Jamaal Lascelles

Lascelles

Like Darlow being linked with top flight clubs. Also rumoured to be getting scouted in upcoming weeks. Lascelles has been linked with the top flight for years (at same time as Bamford was) and could well be attract the interest of top clubs. Like Darlow we don’t need to sell but he might also have had his head turned or receive an offer of silly money. That said if we sell one we won’t sell the other.

Strikers Strikers Everywhere, But Who Will Score Us Goals?

What we need right now.

The usual frenzy of transfer activity is of course focussing right now on strikers. It’s this year’s very in thing. Gone are the days of left backs being wanted, that’s so 2011 fashion.

But yes, this fabled 20+ goals a season striker which we need, and must have is top of everyone’s virtual shopping list. Sylvain Ebanks-Blake has had his name added to that veritable list. Of course what hasn’t helped this clamour is that Sheffield Wednesday just renewed one striker and got another in, and went and scored a bloody good but very overdue win.

With the summer demand for Billy Sharp to be signed (despite only having a 1 in 3 goal scoring ratio) and with him going to Reading, it’s been hard to judge if he’d have been the right man, he’s spent his entire Reading loan career injured just about, so whether he went there and banged them in, it hasn’t happened, but not that it might.

So now we cast that net around for a striker, and the talk was a week or so ago that we are looking wider and further, on the continent for that guy to put the goal in the net. It almost speaks not of desperation but exasperation to me. That we thought there’d be the quality in this country to get, but it’s just not there. Whether through availability or just not having the requisite quality around, or because there’s more value for money there.

A few people chucked around Patrick Bamford's name, after his impressive displays for MK Dons, and the fact to increase his development, Chelsea might see us as a good place for him to go from January. This negates some vital aspects. There is a rumour, and I stress rumour, that Bamford’s departure from Forest was somewhat acrimonious. The club angry that their talent they had nurtured was advised to move away, apparently by family. There is also the fact Chelsea might not be our best friends with the whole Chalobah thing. This forgets that Bamford fell out with the old regime, things have changed.

Of course previously we have seen plenty of other names in the past few months since Raffik Djebbours snub or whatever it was. Some of the names are hilarious (I saw someone suggest Adebayor), but others would seem good targets. Hooper and Austen always looked farfetched. And it seems any time any striker gets a brace now some fans scream he should and could be in our team.

And what I haven’t yet done is mention our current strikers. I have done in other blogs. I do think admittedly Cox is out of form, though the unfair fickle abuse many hand out is wrong. People who don’t understand form just saying we need to get rid when this guy has proved himself at higher stages than us. Tudgay and Henderson are Championship cloggers. Blackstock, well he’s not around now. Derbyshire remains on the fringes and you wonder what it’d take to just give him a bit more of a go, and Ishmael Miller is Ishmael Miller. It does certainly seem like it needs a little reinvigorating.

And it needs to happen soon. The longer the drought goes on the more it rests in the mind. The more it will affect form. Wanted; someone to score goals. When we went up in the past it was always with a bona fide goalscorer. We need one again. Maybe not in Collymore or van Hooijdonk’s class. But someone who knows where the back of the net is.

Potential Forest Departures

With Billy now getting a transfer window to tackle his squad, there might be just as many heading out of doors as coming in them. Partially to free up wages, clear out some dead wood and just to get rid of players Billy simply doesn’t fancy.

Potential outs

Dan Harding
Ok so our recognised left back, but the fact simply looks like he’s not good enough, and Billy doesn’t rate him. Whether that means sticking with ever reliable Chris Cohen, or shifting him back to midfield and getting a specialized left back in isn’t fully clear. However you would think anyone with any sense would bring in a proper left back and get Cohen back to where he is effective. Harding didn’t have the greatest of seasons, and should there be much interest I could see him being moved on.

Gillett

Simon Gillett
Genuinely thought he might be a Billy type player, very much in that McKenna mould, but again, Billy tends to want his own men in roles he see’s vital, and he doesn’t much seem to like Gillett. He flattered to deceive in the second half of the season, and O’Driscoll may come a knocking again for his erstwhile side kick. Don’t imagine we’d demand much of a fee either.

Matt Derbyshire
Please god someone take this waste of resources off us. He didn’t do much on either loan, and just seems to be content taking vast wedges of cash for his wife to splurge in the cinema. Really hope he gets shipped on. The only nagging doubt I have is that Billy likes a poacher, he might see Derbyshire as one of those, but I think also board pressure would want to see players like Derbyshire out the club.

Collins

Danny Collins
Might be slightly controversial this one, but Billy didn’t initially seem to like the Welshman. Additionally, the captaincy was removed from him. In that regard he might well get told he’s not seen as first choice and his age he may decide he’s prefer to look elsewhere for action. A lot of fans don’t rate Collins, I don’t mind him, but he is cumbersome at times. I don’t imagine his wages are cheap either.





Stephen McLaughlin
It’s funny we all this focus on a winger when we have rough and ready one in reserve, admittedly on Reidy’s side, but we don’t much about the Irishman. Now I base this all purely on the McCleary evidence but Billy never gave him his chance, he only blossomed under Cotterill. Is there something about these unpolished diamonds Billy doesn’t like? He does tend to focus on players who are the finished article, not having the patience to see someone develop fully. Might see him go or at least loaned out for 6 months.

Miller

Ishmael Miller
Hardly set the world alight with Boro but could quite easily be on his way. Expensive and not getting the returns on the investment it might be best to cut losses, or just simply take what we can and accept the loss. Some have said Billy could get him playing, but I think the ship sailed a long time ago on Miller. Just get him off the wage bill. Him and Derbyshire alone are taking up the pay we could get 4/5 very good players for. Hungry players. m There has been a number on Twitter saying we should give him a chance. These people clearly only saw him for West Brom







Dexter Blackstock
Yeah he has only just signed a deal, but there have been numerous occasions there has been chatter he could be off. If we did sign Carlton Cole I’d expect to see Dexter go, and lets be honest his form last season was pretty bad. It’s also one player we could get a fee to reinvest from.

Guy Moussi
Moussi is not first XI by any stretch and is so inconsistent. After his contract negotiations the other season i don’t suppose he is cheap either. He’s the type of player we might look to recoup some money on, and Billy doesn’t seem to like him as much as he did before.

Jonathan Greening
Like Derbyshire and Miller on a lot of money for no real returns. Offloading him, for free probably, considering age and poor performance, and we could ease off that £12 k from the wage bill he is swallowing up. Nobody will miss him, he seems to only serve the purpose of keeping the dressing room entertained these days.



All of this would maybe free up some cash on the wages front, that we now have to consider FFP wise. Consider that supposedly Derbyshire, Miller and Greening between them are on over £40k a week, which s a little over £2mill a year of our turnover we have to pay out to crap. We can’t let that continue. Players sitting on fat long term contracts has to end.

Our Strikers - An Appraisal

With the new signing of Simon Cox and the news we seemingly are also looking at Chris Wood and or Simon church, its begs the question what are we intending to do with our current stable of forwards, and where they fit in with the scope of the team and squad as a whole.

Simon Cox
As the big new signing and seemingly high cost involved it is almost certain Cox will regularly start. As well as playing front he can also get pushed to the wings too, as shown at Euro 2012 for Ireland. Apart from this Cox is somewhat of a mystery to me, I do not know a great deal side looking at his stats and what Wikipedia says, but that doesn’t always cast a true story. A lot of Baggies fans have told us we have a good player on our hands and that’s good enough for me, and the fact he was good enough to be in the Irish squad for 2012, although Ireland didn’t do a great deal, the fact he was there performing on a very grand scale footballing event speaks volumes.

Dexter Blackstock
The Antigua international was recently handed the captains armband in the Villa friendly. An indicator he is regarded as one of the senior pros at the club, and he is similarly well regarded by the fans. I see Dex as being the target man for Cox, holding up play and feeding the new man. But Dex has an eye for goal too, and can score a lot of gals at this level. He seems to love the club quite a lot, and is hungry after such a long layoff with injury to get back to the fore front. He will definitely play a role in the squad, and start more than he does not in games.

Ishmael Miller
For me this should have been his season to shine and lead the line. Maybe Cox is replacing him. Miller was definitely intended to be the power house forward and be a focal point, due to injuries and poor form it hasn’t happened. Whether this is down to managers not knowing how to implement him, or maybe the element of resentment of his inflated wages is true. Miller is on double many of team mate’s wages. Aside from this he struggled with fitness never able to be build a head of steam form wise and merely flit in and out the side regularly. Very much under used in the second half of the season he does though have a good record. Add to that though there was other clubs apparently interested and due to his hefty wages, and despite now having money we may look to move him on should the right offer come in. Maybe we were just the wrong club at the wrong time.

Matt Derbyshire
Where do you even begin? In and out of the treatment room, and apparently had been carrying a very long term injury when even in the side Derbyshire has said he is fully fit and raring to go, that may well have to be at another club. Like Miller he is on a hefty slice, more than many team mates and the fact he has done next to nothing to justify these wages, which have so well funded Vue and Showcase cinemas it seems. He gets a lot of abuse, probably unwarranted, he’s just doing his job, it’s just he’s so bad at it, falling over continually, seemingly unaware of the big net thing at the far end of the pitch. Most fans have been lost in terms of him, it would take an amazing turn in form for the fans to take him to heart, and the majority of McClaren signings are like this. Regarded with complete indifference, because frankly they have all failed. Derbyshire’s record in the past is mixed at best anyway, and it seems he isn’t quite in love with this club, always on twitter about Blackburn or Olympiakos, and seemingly on match days when Forest are on twittering about whatever else he is getting up to. The problem is on his wages he will be difficult to unload, either on loan or permanently.

Robbie Findley
All pace and no end product. He has scored a few goals admittedly, often in cups versus lower league opposition. His most famous achievement with Forest is missing from2 yards with an open goal. A clearing off the line any defender would be proud of, he was trying to score. Also for spending his first few months with the club permanently injured. I’m not sure he is as fast as people said he was, He doesn’t seem as fast as Tyson say for instance, and at least Tyson had a powerful shot, Findley doesn’t seem to have this. He also seems very much a confidence striker, which when you’re in and out the team is hard to for you build that. MLS fans on 24-7’s forums’ warned us he wasn’t that good. A warning that seems to have come true. It might be worth moving him on or loaning him to a League One level side. Or Barnsley, because they take practically anyone on, especially when foreign.

Marcus Tudgay
As I said last week he seems to have been bookmarked as Blackstock's back up for a target man to hold the ball up who can also finish well. Just as I thought his time would be up he looked good against Villa. The thing I’m not sure he is top Championship striker, he’s perfectly reasonable for some teams, but not if you want promotion as he can drift out of games. That said he has scored some very important and good quality goals in his couple of years at the club. Plus it’s always nice to have ex Derby players who have a bait of scoring against them. I see him as having a limited future; maybe see his contract out as a fringe squad player.

David McGoldrick
You don’t get nicknamed McGoaldrought for nothing. I genuinely would be elated to see the back of him as I can’t help thinking he must demotivated. He scored goals before us, but something is holding him back, as whenever he plays for us he is mostly anonymous. Occasionally a good game marks people saying he’s turned the corner only to not hear his name again for weeks on end. Needs to move on quickly, like Garner did once he was out the loop.

More Transfer Rumour Updates

Yeah I said this would be weekly, I pretty much knew that'd be wrong, and that the rumours would come thick and fast. Thanks to those who have "tipped" m off with some, a lot was utter tosh of course but amongst it is some stuff that looks remotely believable.

Ins

Alex John Baptiste

Local lad Baptiste playing for Blackpool has been linked this week, with it mainly being IF we get rid of Morgan. Baptiste from Ollerton in Nottinghamshire is believed to be a Forest fan. He spent a long while at Mansfield Town. "Bap" has just been out for 3 weeks, so I’m not sure if this rumour was simply started by someone noticing he wasn’t playing and piecing together information from there, but it has a certain amount of possible truth to it.

Rob Earnshaw

Not going to happen, but people persists in linking him with a return. The fact we couldn’t afford to pay his wages before, and now with tighter restrictions and him having a better paid contract now than what we'd offer pretty much rounds this point off.



Outs

Chris Gunter,

Instead of West Brom, Fulham is the new rumoured home for him, although contrary to some reports it wasn't Martin Jol who signed for Spurs as he had left a few months previous. Gunter is likely to fetch around £2million.

Ishmael Miller

Only been here a short while, but already being linked with a departure to Middlesbrough, who don’t mind overspending on wages for strikers, they've been doing that since the 90's anyway (ahh Ravanelli, Boksic, Boyd, McDonald,

Wes Morgan

Wes is refusing to sign a new deal apparently so the club may be open to offers to bring in some kind of fee. Seems ludicrous when we have no centre halves and Wes would probably be happy to stay till June to help the club. Plus can you really see Wes in any other teams shirt?

5 Games Without a Goal

The 0-0 against Bristol City may have at the end of the day ended our losing run; however it now stretches to 5 games now we haven’t scored. 450 minutes. 7 and a half hours. That’s quite a record in its own right.

Now of course in that time there have been some baffling saves, and goal line clearences, but they happen all the time. The truth is we are completely misfiring in front of goal and that is beginning to get extremely costly.

Obviously Dexter Blackstock is somewhat above blame, he’s barely played in the run and has been out for a year. Miller got injured during the run. Tudgay remains goalless, and Findley only played half the run. The midfield hasnt weighed in with goals, and so far this season, save for Lynch’s strike v Ipswich the defence has barely contributed goal wise, which after the exploits in previous seasons of Chambers goal scoring runs adds up.

1 or 2 goals here or there in this run would have given us at least 4 extra points. That'd see us a few places further up the table (Around the same stage as Derby) Not that scoring in any of those goals would have resulted in points, it’s a churlish argument, but the fact remains, we need goals. Goals win games. And therefore points. And we need that quickly.

So what we need is a goal scorer. Tudgay has never really been prolific. Miller has been frustrating with injuries. Derbyshire has barely had a run and scored goals before, but when he has played he has looked so lightweight.

So do we need yet another striker? It’s the one position we don’t have dearth of players. It's just the ones we do have arent firing. So it’s easy to suggest shipping a couple out to bring some more in. I've argued before about taking a Premiership youngster on loan to give them a no pressure go. We aren’t in a position to snap up a lower youngster, we can’t pay much in fee's to bring anyone in. One of two people I know suggested Patrick Bamford from the youngsters has been fairly consistent scoring there, but I’m not sure trying someone completely untried at professional level would work.

But is it a case of not the right service to score the goals. You can have the best strikers in the world but with no service it’s not going to result in much. McCleary looked creative against Palace, but in other games there was not a lot of production in the midfield to make chances for strikers to prove themselves. We no longer have an Earnshaw esque striker who creates something out of nothing at times, so we need that service from midfield. Cohen’s delivery may be missing there and his drive and determination. We don't have a box to box midfielder right now. McGugan and Majewski don; drive into the box enough. So I'd argue he is a huge miss in the build up of goals as his runs distracted defenders from the attacker.

It is extremly frustrating and need remedying. If there was an easy answer, we'd be scoring. If it was easy we'd all be managers. Let’s just hope Cotterill gets them firing.

Miller Signing Spells the End for Tudgay and McGoldrick?

Firstly I was playing with bad puns to report the Miller signing along the lines of "call me Ishmael" quotes or Much the Millers Son. And decided all were unusable and really trying to hard. Besides everyone on planet earth knew this was coming so its hardly news. But yeah, welcome to Ishmael Miller. A big physical fast striker, possibly of the Marlon Harewood or King models of the past.



Its a type of player we missed in the past couple of years. Yeah we had Dele but his mobility was near negligible and so negated all his other work. I feel the strike force is coming together. We have replaced those guys who left us with players in my opinion as good or if not better. Derbyshire is the poacher in Earnshaws mode. Finley is the Tyson speedster. And Miller now the physical tough guy.



All this begs the question now what of Marcus Tudgay and David McGoldrick. Neither of whom have really flattered to deceive lately. McGoldrick to me has to be regraded as largely a failure since signing. An occasional goal, albeit wonder strikes versus Palace and bundling the goal in from close range from a yard haven't made me think he has it. And now there are more strikers vying for his place,it may be time to move him on,or try to fit in him another role. But where. He can sort of play wide, which he might be used as,and he can also sort of play in behind the striker, but he would never be first choice in either of these positions. Most fans would not be disappointed to move him on. True, he hasn't ever really had a chance to have a long term run in the team,but ask yourself whys this? You need to be good enough to get that shot,and right now,it seems Schteve doesn't think he's up to the challenge of leading the line.



Tudgay has never fully convinced me either,and I definitely think his time might be up. To me he was always, not quite a panic buy, but a short term solution to the Dexter Blackstock problem. OK he can hold the ball up,and he has netted a few goals, but as warned to me by a Wednesday supporting mate there will be long periods of him looking completely disinterested and going through the motions. I also think he is not aplayer to be at a top Championship club. His level is a little further down,he doesn't have that spark for me, that certain pazzazz that fills me confidence as well as mystery about what he could do. He's not a guy to make something out of nothing. Which is frustrating as he isn't a bad player. He just isn't great either.



Joe Garner too might well be thinking uh-oh time is up. McClaren seems to have a little more faith in him though, maybe illing to give him a go,and after all he did fairly well for Scunthorpe after going there on loan last season. But by god does he need to sort his attitude out. Against County it was embarrassing watching him have tissy fits, pick fights, and dive extremely badly. Like he wants to be that pantomime villain.



It will be interesting to see how the strike force evolves over the next few matches and who gets picked and who doesn't. What will McClarens choices be,and will he stick to the one up front with McGugan tucked in,or whether that was his repsonse to the squad he inherited. One thing is for certain. It is starting to take his shape more now as more players he has signed come in. Interesting times ahead.