Legendary Nottingham Forest player Garry Birtles has criticized the team’s transfer approach and believes the top goal should be a Premier League striker.
According to his own admission, Birtles is well known for occasionally painting Forest in a bad light.
He may find it difficult to accept that Forest doesn’t currently hold the same standing as when he played for the team and European dominance was a yearly event.
Birtles believes that more seasoned Premier League players ought to be the norm now that the club’s transfer policy has come under fire.
Star Premier League striker Garry Birtles wants Nottingham Forest to recruit him.
This is a rather amazing assertion made by Birtles, possibly surpassing anything he has ever said.
The former Forest striker finds it puzzling that Forest did not attempt to recruit Dominic Solanke, a striker for Bournemouth, this summer.
Yes, exactly. The player who scored 21 goals in the previous campaign, including a hat-trick against Forest, ought to be on the Reds’ radar as they narrowly avoided elimination.
Given his performance last season, Solanke, who has been linked to a move to Tottenham in the past, is probably going to cost about £60 million.
Birtles is still furious that Forest isn’t trying to sign the feared charmer at the Premier League level.
“You have to consider what you’re up against in the Premier League,” he said in an interview with the Forest Focus podcast.
“Over the past two seasons, we’ve had difficulty staying up. People will argue there isn’t much English talent around if you bet on a few players abroad, in my opinion, because there isn’t a single English player in there.
I would love to see someone like Solanke, the guy upfront for Bournemouth who scores goals nonstop. He hasn’t been receiving much attention, but against us last season, he scored a hat-trick. Why don’t you just go ahead and make a huge bid for him? He scores goals consistently and knows where the net is. Why aren’t these names being considered? Why aren’t we looking into names like that who have a track record in the Premier League?
“These guys coming in from overseas, one might come off, but how many others haven’t come off? It’s hard to say.”
For Forest, the task is to locate the next Solanke.
We believe that, at least in the background, Forest is aware of its place in the Premier League food chain.
By adding Englishman Elliot Anderson, Garry, Carlos Miguel, Jota Silva, and Nikola Milenkovic to their roster, they have a core group of players who are all about the same age and have a ton of promise.
With a solid core of players from the previous year still in the fold, Forest has made some excellent hires this summer, and perhaps Nuno Espirito Santo can get things going.
Should Forest consider pursuing a striker, it must be the replacement for Solanke. He won’t be forced to leave Bournemouth by the Reds, and what exactly can Forest offer him that the Cherries can’t?
But, the team might try to find the next Solanke and hope that he makes a name for himself while playing at the City Ground.
