'Really dangerous': Nottingham Forest youngster proves his worth during rare start for loan club
10/10/2024 12:30 PM
Nottingham Forest have an academy to be proud of and in the summer the club tried to get a number of young players out on loan.
The Reds do have a Category One status these days and that means competing in the Premier League 2 and Premier League International Cup competitions.
Forest also enter their B-Team in the EFL Trophy these days, with a 4-2 defeat coming at the hands of Morecambe on Tuesday night.
Joe Gardner starred for Forest in that game and he was one of the players who wasn’t loaned out, with the club instead choosing to utilise him on Trentside.
One player who was deemed ready to sample men’s football on a more frequent basis was Esapa Osong and Rotherham United took him for the season.
Esapa Osong scores first goal for Rotherham during EFL Trophy clash
The talented Forest youngster was perhaps a surprise pick by Rotherham in the summer given that Steve Evans’ team are backed to be flying high in League One this season.
Although Osong has proved a decent goalscorer at the under-21 level, he does have some big-name players ahead of him at the New York Stadium – including the renowned Jonson Clarke-Harris.
As a result, his first-team chances have been restricted to minutes from the substitutes bench and that is never easy for a younger player.
On Tuesday, however, he got the chance to partner with the vastly experienced Jordan Hugill from the start and in tandem they blew away Newcastle under-21s.
The Rotherham Advertiser were very impressed with Forest gem Osong and gave him a 6/10 during their player ratings piece online.
Paul Davis wrote: “Hopefully a first goal will kick-start his loan spell. Drifed out of the game for periods but there were a couple of really dangerous moments from him.”
Osong has the attributes to go all the way at Forest
It’s been claimed this week that Nuno Espirito Santo has put building blocks in place to try and unearth the next Ryan Yates or Brennan Johnson.
Forest leave no stone unturned with their academy players and things continue to build for the club behind the scenes.
Osong has made his debut – albeit brief – for the senior ranks, coming on in the second leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United during the 2022/23 season.
The 19-year-old striker is powerful, holds the ball up well and perhaps more importantly as a centre-forward, he knows where the back of the net is.
On the face of things, Rotherham perhaps wasn’t the best loan move for him. His game time will be heavily restricted and a club that could give him more starts might have proved better for his development.
Osong is rated highly at Forest though and hopefully, it’s not too long before he can convince Evans to give him more of a run in League One.
