Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, during the Carabao Cup 2nd Round match between Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United at the City Ground in Nottingham, England, on August 28, 2024. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nottingham Forest sign £25m Atletico Madrid defender and £15m gem in savvy January transfer window prediction
Ange Postecoglou’s first transfer window at the City Ground will be a crucial one
It’s been an auspicious start to Ange Postecoglou’s reign at Nottingham Forest as the Australian continues to wait for his first victory at the City Ground following the controversial sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo.
Aside from Postecoglou’s first game at Arsenal, it’s been an eminently winnable schedule featuring games against Swansea, Burnley and Real Betis but the draw at Turf Moor meant Forest sat just three places above the Premier League relegation zone despite a relatively kind start to their schedule.
Then came Sunderland, and a troubling 1-0 home defeat to the travelling Black Cats – a result that sees the club now just one place above the drop zone, with just one point keeping them from falling through the trap door.
Next up, it’s Newcastle, Chelsea and Bournemouth in the Premier League before November alongside Europa League fixtures against Midtjylland and Porto so it doesn’t get any easier for Postecoglou, in fact they only play five games against sides currently in the bottom half of the top flight in the rest of 2025.
Nuno fell out with Edu, Forest’s Global Head of Football, ahead of his exit so the pressure will now be on the Brazilian if results don’t turn around, given the incredible job Nuno did at the City Ground. So that combination means the Tricky Trees will need to spend in January and we asked Grok how the window will turn out for them.
Evolution not revolution at Forest despite Nuno switch
Javi Galan – £25m from Atletico Madrid – Nottingham Forest reinforced their full-back positions in the summer, bringing in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Nicolo Savona but Grok clearly believes the job isn’t done after Ola Aina was ruled out for three months and Galan is out of favour in the Spanish capital having played just 95 league minutes.
Aged 30, Galan has recorded 174 La Liga appearances with 14 assists and a goal on the left flank. He’s even played almost 100 senior games further up the pitch, so would provide experience, versatility and quality to a defensive unit that only has four players over the age of 24.
David Soria – £15m from Getafe – Forest pursued Soria in the summer and though they couldn’t get a deal over the line to back up Matz Sels, that chase may not be over.
Getafe have made a good start to the season, sitting seventh, though Soria can’t take too much credit for that as only one team in the top half of the table has a worse defensive record than the Azulones’ eight goals conceded and Soria has already let one more in than his post-shot expected goals tally.
Dwight McNeil – £35m from Everton – Is £35m a good deal for a winger who’s made 33 goal contributions in all competitions since joining Everton for just over half that? McNeil would need to kick on from that performance level for that giant price tag to be justified but Forest do only have one specialist left-attacker in their squad
Anderson hammer blow for Postecoglou
Elliot Anderson – £40m to Manchester United – A move that would break the hearts of Nottingham Forest fans, Anderson celebrated his first England call-up earlier this month but United are reportedly interested in him and it would be a hard call to turn down given the impact he could have at Old Trafford.
Taiwo Awoniyi – £25m to Werder Bremen: Despite not adding any strikers in this projection, Forest are flush with options to lead the line after bringing in Arnaud Kalimuendo and Igor Jesus in the summer, and with Chris Wood signing a new deal to keep him at the City Ground until he’s 35, the Kiwi certainly doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.
Instead, Awoniyi could be the man to make way – Forest need to be proactive to avoid falling into the same Profit and Sustainability Rules trouble that’s trapped Aston Villa and Newcastle. So making an £8m profit on Awoniyi to send him back to the Bundesliga, where he’s had success in the past, makes lots of sense.
Callum Hudson-Odoi – £20m to Fulham: Hudson-Odoi to McNeil for a £15m loss feels like a flat-out downgrade to us though the numbers don’t necessarily back that up.
The 24-year-old showed what he could do with his goal against Crystal Palace and Postecoglou’s squad could certainly use the depth, but Marco Silva and Fulham will be desperate for Premier League-proven reinforcements this winter and Hudson-Odoi fits the bill. His contract runs until 2028 so Forest are in no rush to cash in.
AI-predicted 2026 Nottingham Forest starting XI: Benching our reigning joint-Golden Glove holder is just who we are, mate: Soria; Savona, Murillo, Cunha, Galan; Yates, McAtee; Ndoye, Hutchinson, McNeil; Kalimuendo.
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