Nottingham Forest have overcome a lot of heartache over the previous two decades since dropping out of the top flight, including relegation to League One in 2005 and the financial hardships that followed, but supporters are now enjoying the most fruitful period in recent history.
Since their promotion back to the Premier League, a footballing giant has been awoken on Trentside with their resurgence back to England’s top table being spearheaded by Steve Cooper’s managerial expertise and following an exceptional transfer window, are in a good position to consolidate once more.
While the City Ground is a cauldron of hope and excitement these days, their path back to the big time has been far from simple and in their attempts to assemble a squad good enough to challenge for promotion, Forest have missed out on several quality stars.
Every team has stories to tell when discussing the ones who got away and became world-beaters elsewhere; Forest are no different. From coming very close to signing Gareth Bale in 2009 to failing in their pursuit to land Ivan Toney in 2020, those two examples are the most pressing of those woes laid bare.
Another is that of John McGinn, who was once heavily linked with a move to the City Ground, in what would have been a huge blessing for the tricky trees.
Did Nottingham Forest nearly sign John McGinn?
In the summer of 2017, Nottingham Forest were scouting for an all-action and tireless midfielder with John McGinn popping up on their radar from Scottish Premiership side Hibernian.
At the time, the 22-year-old was one of the hottest prospects in the division and the Hibs demonstrated that by holding firm in their valuation of the midfielder, knocking back two bids that were made by Forest for £750,000 and £1.5m, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Leave a Reply