£7m player Nottingham Forest didn't rate now an 'assist king', he's outshining Lukaku in Italy
10/10/2024 02:30 PM
Nottingham Forest had some success on the transfer front when Steve Cooper was trying to assemble a squad capable of competing in the Premier League.
Forest are currently tenth in the Premier League after seven games of the season under Nuno Espirito Santo and some fans are possibly dreaming of playing European football in the near future.
Although Cooper had some joy in the market, there have been lots of Premier League signings – particularly those on loan – that didn’t work out for the former head coach in the top flight.
In fairness to Cooper, the loan signings made prior to the 2023/24 season hardly looked like his players. Andrey Santos was added behind the former head coach’s back and played just seven minutes before returning to Chelsea.
There was also Divock Origi and Gonzalo Montiel signed on loan. Origi was particularly poor and is now in limbo with AC Milan as he looks to try and play some football somewhere.
One player who did raise some eyebrows when Forest signed him was Nuno Tavares. He had been substituted after half an hour playing against the Reds in the FA Cup during 2021/22 and fans were incensed with the signing.
Nuno Tavares wasn’t fancied by Steve Cooper at Forest
The Portuguese performer clearly wasn’t one of Cooper’s signings. He made just three appearances for the former head coach and didn’t even make the bench for much of the campaign.
Such was Cooper’s unwillingness to pick him, he even moved Ola Aina – naturally a right-back – over to the left to compete with Harry Toffolo for the position.
When Espirito Santo came to the club, Tavares earned a reprieve. He four of the manager’s first eight games and was on the bench for all but one of the others.
Injury curtailed his progress in the team and his form was erratic at best. Clearly, not playing much football for the first four months of the season did little to help him settle on Trentside.
Ultimately, he left Forest with no goal contributions from 12 appearances and just five of those outings coming in the way of starts in the Premier League.
Nuno Tavares has more assists than Rafael Leao in Serie A this season
Since Forest decided not to take Tavares on a permanent deal, Arsenal have loaned the left-back out again – this time to Serie A outfit Lazio.
The move has given him a new lease of life and he’s playing regular football and should also get the chance to play in the Europa League for his new team.
Not only that, but Forest fans might be surprised to hear that he’s actually doing pretty well with Lazio and has developed quite a reputation.
Foot Italia have nicknamed him the ‘assist king’ after the Portuguese defender helped himself to five assists from his opening five appearances of the 2024/25 campaign.
AC Milan star Leao is currently on four assists from his seven appearances for the Serie A giants – and he plays further up the pitch than Tavares!
Tavares is only 24 and had the price been right, perhaps Forest would have signed him and let Espirito Santo nurture him this season.
However, Forest had other gaps in the squad to plug and the man Arsenal signed for £7 million was never really going to be on the club’s wanted list after last season.
Still, he’s busy proving the Reds wrong right now and clearly playing elsewhere in Europe gives Tavares the desire to produce the goods and kick on in his career.
