Nottingham Forest made move to sign attacker who scored 23 goals last season on deadline day

Nottingham Forest fought tooth and nail to sign a striker ahead of the transfer deadline but to no avail.

The Reds wanted a new talisman, although some reports have suggested that Nuno Espirito Santo told Evangelos Marinakis that he’s more than happy with the Forest options.

Santiago Gimenez was seemingly the number one target at Forest. He, however, made a decision to remain at Feyenoord after a late change of heart at the eleventh hour.

There was also a move for Eddie Nketiah. Things had looked to be close on that one for a little while but Nketiah chose to move to Crystal Palace after chatting with Oliver Glasner.

A third striker came on the radar in the form of Omar Marmoush. The Eintracht Frankfurt striker was the subject of a bid but Forest didn’t think he was worth the £28 million valuation.

The deadline day came and went without a striker coming to the City Ground. With that in mind, it was ideal that Chris Wood showed on Saturday that he’s up for the challenge, scoring again against Wolves.

Nottingham Forest made late play to sign Simon Banza

According to The Athletic, the Reds made a late enquiry to take Banza on loan from Braga. However, it proved to be a bit of a non-starter – and extremely ambitious.

Banza has been with Braga since 2022 when he checked in from Ligue 1 outfit Lens. In 90 appearances for the Portuguese outfit, he’s scored 37 goals and claimed 15 assists.

Last season, he played six times in the Champions League without scoring but did manage 23 goals from 41 appearances in all competitions for Braga.

At 28, the player is in the peak of his career and Forest were keen to take him on loan, allowing the club a bit more time to source a stellar striker.

The move was always going to be tricky. Banza is playing for a team in the Europa League this season and that would have made prising him away at such a late stage an almost impossible task.

Banza would have proved risky signing for Forest

Last season Forest used the loan market extremely poorly. Divock Origi was bang average, Rodrigo Ribeiro and Andrey Santos barely played, whilst Giovanni Reyna proved a waste of a signing.

Banza would have needed to have settled into life in England and that might have taken time. With Wood scoring goals he’d have needed to be patient for game time which wouldn’t have helped him.

 

The 28-year-old is unlikely to remain on the radar. Forest only fancied taking him on loan and that makes it feel like the club only really saw him as a stop-gap option for this season.

Forest have done well in the transfer market this summer. As a result, it’s good that the club didn’t sign players for the sake of it and wasted millions in fees and wages.