Nottingham Forest-owned player is way too good to be playing for current loan club - journalist
09/26/2024 03:00 PM
Nottingham Forest did tireless work in the transfer market to offload over 20 players either permanently or on loan deals.
The Reds have had a bloated squad since returning to the Premier League but now things are changing.
Only Emmanuel Dennis remains as a senior player who isn’t currently training with Nuno Espirito Santo’s team and that represents progress.
Forest added 11 new players to the ranks and things look a lot more streamlined these days with emphasis on a settled squad.
Most of the players who left were pretty unsurprising and the loan players who have departed will be monitored accordingly by the staff behind the scenes at Forest.
Nottingham Forest loan star Omar Richards stars with Rio Ave
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Richards was allowed to leave the club on loan once again this summer.
He spent last season with Olympiacos and still hasn’t played a competitive game for Forest since signing from Bayern Munich.
Richards spent time in Spain with Forest on a pre-season tour but shortly after returning it became clear that Espirito Santo wouldn’t be utilising him within his squad.
As a result, the player was loaned out to Rio Ave – owned by Evangelos Marinakis – and he’s been trying to shine in Portugal.
Now, some information has come to light on how he’s getting on with his new loan club and it appears to be going well.
Portuguese journalist Filipe Melo was on the Long Ball Futebol podcast this week and he’s been very impressed with Richards.
He explained: “Omar Richards is a great player, he’s actually way too good for this level of football and should be playing higher.”
Richards might never wear Forest shirt
After signing in 2022, Richards has endured some rotten luck. He broke a bone in his leg and needed a hernia operation in his first season at the club.
Last season, he wasn’t fancied to stay fit by Steve Cooper and subsequently headed out on loan to try and revive his career.
He did manage to win the Europa Conference League with Olympiacos but clearly, he couldn’t impress Espirito Santo sufficiently in pre-season.
Richards is out of contract in the summer of next year and it seems for all the world that it will prove a signing that won’t work out.
Injuries scuppered his Forest ambitions and now it’s up to Richards to keep producing the goods to get himself in the shop window.
