As far as I can tell, with the Jota sale not done and no public attempts to move Taiwo on, we now have 28 in our 25 man league squad. So unless they can be shifted to Greece, Taiwo, Jota and someone else (not obvious to me who) are going to be bomb squadded - assume that'll be announced shortly. And then another three (Gunn, Dominguez, ???) from the Europa league squad, which is submitted today.
22 Apr 2025
2.0K
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For what it's worth:
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c79lpz27g4xo
Remaining open windows:
The Eredivisie deadline is 24 hours later at 23:00 on Tuesday, 2 September.
Belgium and Switzerland's window closes on Monday, 8 September.
The Saudi Pro League window closes on Tuesday, 23 September.
Turkey and Greece's windows close on Friday, 12 September.
The Serbian Super Liga's deadline is on Wednesday, 17 September.So still some possibilities of, at worst, six month loans to tide them over until the January window.
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Let’s hope they finished that dressing room extension on time at Olympiakos
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Sels, Gunn, Victor,
Neco, Ola, Cuiabano, Zinc, Savona,
Murillo, Milo, Cunha, Morato, Boly, Abbott
Nico, Yates, Sangare, Luiz, Anderson
Mcatee, MGW, Jota, Kuilimendo, CHO, Ndoye, Bakwa, Hutchinson,
Wood, Jesus, Taiwo,
So 30 senior players, unless I've missed anyone?
Abbott doesn't count as I assume, so isn't that 4 missing out?
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If that list is correct then it seems reasonably easy to cull 3 of them - Boly, Jota, Taiwo - and then it's one more.
Do we need 5 full backs? I would think not, but then it's pretty harsh to slash either one of the current incumbents or the newly purchased shiny ones.
Which leaves Yates or Dominguez for me. If Dominguez is out for a while then it's him. If he's due back imminently then it's Yates... -
Fuck off.
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For the Premier League, Cunha doesn't count either - he's under 21.
Not a great indication of the club's competence if they extend Boly's contract in the summer and then leave him out of the playing squad in September. If he's missing when the squad is announced, then it'd be a strong sign that Nuno is negotiating his exit.
Yates is definitely in the European squad, otherwise we are voluntarily only picking 21 when we could have 22.
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Ok, so who then? If not Boly and Yates you've got to find 2 more.
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I think this home-grown thing matters to the club. I expect to see Yates (or Abbott) in every match day squad, in each competition.
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League or Europe?
For the league, it'll be Jota, Awoniyi and either Dominguez (time for rehab) or Cuiabano (he's still young, so loaned somewhere for experience).
For europe, add Gunn, the other one of Dominguez/Cuiabano and maybe they reduce the strain on Wood (or Ola?) (Cunha isn't included either) -
I agree. The Zinchenko signing suggests to me that Cuiabano is seen as a "project" player; young, relatively low fee (not revealed, I think?), high ceiling, needs development. It's a big step to move to Europe that young and be expected to thrive immediately at that age - Murillo was an exception, but he's a wonderful freak.
Doesn't mean Cuiabano cannot play a role later in the season, but it would take the immediate pressure off him.
Actually, I think the biggest pressure is on Nuno, whose track record & oft-repeated preference for a small, tight squad doesn't immediately scream to me that he's ideal for a squad clearly designed for rotation. I think he's a good enough manager to adjust, provided his heart is in it - and that will become apparent soon enough. If he tries to make a point that a squad this size wasn't his idea, he'll be gone in a matter of weeks.
Let's hope not.
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I've mentioned this a number of times. There is an inherent tension between the sort of manager that Nuno is, and how we outperformed better teams last season, and the recruitment direction. There's a reason that modern money based development youth type unbuilding squads have the same sort of runaround lego block coaches. As much as there's a reason that us trying to build the best squad that we could, and play to their strengths (not to development objectives), worked for us to help outperfom substantial numbers of more expensively assembled squads.
Essentially you are one thing or the other. I would argue that we are not established enough to play the same game as the rest. But it looks like that's the plan. In that case Nuno is not your man.
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The way we played last year was clearly found out in the last 8 games (W2/D2/L4). We lacked the energy or ability to play a different way. Bottom half teams sat back and challenged us to find a way through, whilst hitting us on the break. Forest 25/26 can’t be the same as 24/25.
The other issue is squad size and quality and here Nuno does need to change. He was very good at bringing on subs to close out a game last year (Yates, Morato, Jota). He didn’t really have any impact subs outside of the first 11. Occasionally he left either Elanga or CHO on the bench but that was the exception. Now he needs to make changes much earlier to affect a game positively when we need something to happen and has much more quality at his disposal. He also needs to be brave enough to bring off players for whom it’s not happening, regardless of what name is on the back of their shirt.
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I agree, Tricky. The question is whether we think (I mean the club, not us Webmongs) that playing as we did last season is the only way to outperform others; my assumption is that the club hierarchy don't think that... but I am less sure about Nuno.
It's always risky to rely on the testimony of fans of previous clubs (I'd pretty much completely disregard what Spuds fans think of Nuno, for example), but quite a few Wolves fans - and they loved him - say that Nuno ran out of ideas when they started to try to evolve the way they played. Of course that could be the players he had at his disposal at the time... but there is at least a concern that Nuno and the Forest direction of travel aren't fully aligned. I suspect he knows that, and that's the root cause of the recent angst.
If I were a betting man, I wouldn't be putting much money on Nuno still being here at Christmas. I hope he is, because I like his dignity and apparent emotional intelligence - and I think he is a better, more flexible manager than many give him credit for - but I suspect it will come down in the end to whether his heart is in it. I cannot imagine EM is an easy person to work for, and there is clearly something (hard to know what, exactly) between Nuno & Edu.
You would think there would be plenty of capable managers who wouldn't mind a shot at working with a squad of the quality we now have. The trouble from my perspective is that the ones I'd be happy with (Iraola, Glasner, Silva) are already in work - and at least 2 I wouldn't be at all happy with (Mourinho & Postecoglu) aren't...
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We lacked the energy to play the same way. There is nothing wrong with how we were playing....it wasn't much of a surprise to anyone after a couple of games. Every club has professionals that look at this sort of thing you know. The problem was we had a cheaper, thinner squad than those we were competing against at the top end. This 'found out' narrative is a bunch of bollocks. When was the last time you saw something on a football pitch that came as a complete surprise?
Football is not as complicated as some would have you believe. Get the bodies in roughly the right places, get them to run around a bit, have a bit of a plan for how you are going to set up without the ball, and how you are going to score. Our approach - get the ball and try to score - is tactically an excellent plan. Ultimately higher quality, and deeper, squads will attrition you out. Absolutely nothing to do with being found out. The current trend for mayhem from long throws has already been found out decades ago...still mayhem. Always has been, always will be. Same for running past someone. You're just conditioned, in recent years, for people not actually trying to score...so you think just because teams go through spells of not scoring that they 'have been found out'. Probably not. Probably just tired and shagged out after a particularly long squawk.
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Like you, I don't know. But if I was to hazard a guess on the basis of available circumstantial evidence, it would be exactly what we are talking about - Nuno wanted a big strong established lad who can run quickly, and stretch the ball by getting hold of it on the transition, and the club hierarchy want to develop into a tippy-tappy same as the rest development team, to make coin through player development.
