MY ACCOUNT
Nottingham Forest’s 23-year exile from the Premier League is over at last.
And as the joy of promotion via the Championship play-off final sinks in, the serious business of plotting how to stay in the top flight begins.
Forest’s promotion will net them around £170million, not all of which will be splashed on new players.
Indeed, Steve Cooper’s current squad proved to be dab hands against Premier League teams this season, beating both Arsenal and Leicester in the FA Cup before narrowly losing to Liverpool.
But no Forest supporter would dare to suggest Cooper’s current crop would be competing for anything other than survival without an influx of new arrivals.
They are favourites to go straight back down, though last season’s play-off winners Brentford proved it is possible to flourish rather than flounder and the model at the City Ground is similar to that at the Brentford Community Stadium.
Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis continues to invest and appears to be in it for the long haul, while chief executive Dane Murphy and director of football Kyriakos Dourekas have given Cooper all the backing required.
Star man Johnson needs to stay
Cooper, an astute tactician, will have ideas of the type of player he wants to bring in but should also be trying to move heaven and earth to keep one or two of his stars, including Brennan Johnson.
The young Welsh international netted 19 times for Forest this season and lit up numerous matches, alerting some of the game’s big guns.
Everton, still a footballing giant in spite of their troubles, have reportedly made the 21-year-old ace a top target and bids of more than £20m would be hard for Forest, and the player, to resist.
Djed Spence, another of the pacey stars Cooper swears by, has returned to parent club Middlesbrough and has other suitors, while James Garner will be looking to impress new Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag after his loan spell.
Right-sided central defender Joe Worrall is another player being courted after a superb season and Cooper would hate to lose him.
Frontmen required
Cooper could undoubtedly do with some more top-flight experience alongside the likes of Steve Cook and Jack Colback.
He also needs more firepower.
Brentford went up in thanks to Ivan Toney, a lethal finisher and penalty-taker, yet someone who only ended up with 12 Premier League goals from the Bees’ total of 48.
Scoring goals against the best defences in the land is challenging.
And while Cooper would want to hang on to Sam Surridge and Keinan Davis, he is going to need many more options in attack.
If you look at the bottom echelons of the top division, you see the likes of Southampton, Leeds, Everton and Brentford.
Forest fans will believe they can finish above at least three of those, plus Bournemouth and Fulham, next season.
If Cooper can tie down Johnson, bring experience into midfield and find a couple of strikers, they might just do it.
