At the time of writing, Nottingham Forest have 27 first-team players. Now I understand that they’ve managed to swindle their way into Europa League football and the squad demands that consequently come with playing that horrible Thursday-Sunday schedule. But when I look at the signings they’ve made, although all good players, I can’t help but feel they’ve massively overbuilt their squad.

With three strikers, three right-wingers, three left-wingers and 6 centre-midfielders who are all good enough in their own right to start in the Premier League, I scratch my head wondering where they’re going to all get the minutes. The recent acquirements of Bakwa, Ndoye, Hutchinson, Mcatee and Kalimunedo all show a deviation towards a more youthful transfer policy but they all need to develop and aren’t yet the finished product but you can’t develop if you don’t have the game time to do so.

Take Omari Hutchinson for example. A player who can operate both centrally and off the right, when he signed people raised their eyebrows at the price but it seemed like a good move for him personally as he was staying in the Premier League at a team that would be competing in Europe. But since this signing, Forest have added Mcatee and Bakwa to their ranks - both players who do their best work in the areas Hutchinson likes to occupy and so now I’m wondering what the point of this transfer really was?

*Image via the Nottingham Forest website*

I know competition for places can be good for a side, but sometimes it can lead to more problems than solutions. Forest last season had a set starting eleven basically from gameweek 1 that only ever changed as a result of an injury. Most Premier League fans would’ve been able to tell you what their strongest eleven was and Nuno didn’t seem like a manager that was all too keen at the thought of rotating it.

According to reports, the Forest manager was already furious at the capture of Douglas Luiz as he didn’t think the side needed a player of that profile. That was about 5 signings ago and I have a hard time believing that he would’ve signed off on all the last-minute deals that were completed towards the end of the window because they weren’t strictly necessary.

This isn’t the first time Forest have received money as a result of qualifying for a new competition and proceeded to spend it ferociously in the market. When they were promoted to the Premier League, I feel like we can all recall they made 30 odd signings in the consequent summer as preparation for their inbound relegation tussle. Nearly €200 million was spent in that 22/23 season and although Forest had just about managed to stay up, there were a good amount of big money signings who just never really got a look in. Omar Richards, Lewis O’Brien, Giulian Biancone and Loic Bade put together just over 20 Premier League appearances between them and all were gone after one year.

This summer, Forest have spent €236.90 million in hopes of being amongst those European places again whilst also going deep in the Europa League. There’s no denying that Evangelis Marinakis is an overwhelmingly temerarious owner but his methods leave me with a lot of questions. Did Forest really need to spend so much on so many players when the continuity and squad harmony they had last season was such a pivotal reason for why they were so good? I’m not saying don’t upgrade your team but especially in Forest’s case I feel it would’ve been better to spend big on four or 5 players instead of precariously hedging your bets on 8 or 9.

Nottingham Forest could finish 6th and win the Europa league, they certainly have the players now to do so, and I can look like a bit of a lemon for writing this. However I doubt that all the players they’ve signed will play big parts in that and I can see a world where some push to leave in a year's time because of a lack of minutes.

With tensions between coach and owner already bubbling away under the surface accompanied by a 3-0 thumping at home to a West Ham side already pretty fragile, the environment at Nottingham Forest most certainly isn’t as rosey as it was 6 months ago and with more guys arriving after deadline day, who’s to say that this upheaval leads to an improvement in morale?

Last season the likes of Kalimuendo, Ndoye, Hutchinson and Bakwa were all key players for their respective sides and so I doubt they’ll settle for being a bit-part player this time round.

Does a Europa league team need three players in each position, who I have no doubt have been promised their fair share of minutes, all competing for places in the starting eleven? It just seems like it’s a bit too much and I’d hate for an overzealous owner to get in the way of the development of some really promising youngsters.

I don’t agree with Forest’s transfer strategy and it gives me flashbacks to what Chelsea were doing in the market a couple of years ago. The club may succeed long-term but this can coincide with a lot of guys missing out on some really key years of developing as footballers, I guess your view of the situation depends on your answer to this question:

Is overall team success worth potentially jeopardising the careers of your younger players?

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