Eyebrows were raised when Scottish Premiership giants allowed Barrie McKay to leave Ibrox for Nottingham Forest for just £500k.
After a bright start to life at the City Ground, it has all gone wrong for Barrie McKay at Nottingham Forest.
The sprightly Scottish winger looked like an inspired addition when he capped his first seven appearances following his summer transfer from Rangers with two goals and four assists.
Flash forward to the present, however, and the appointment of Aitor Karanka in January has seen McKay fall dramatically out of favour. He has started just once in the Championship under the Spanish tactician and was omitted from the 18-man squad altogether for the 5-2 win away at QPR last Saturday.
McKay has scored once and set up a grand total of zero goals since he inspired a 4-0 thrashing of Ian Holloway’s side in the return figure back in early November, but it is not just the 23-year-old’s end product that has attracted attention.
Supporters have been very critical of McKay’s alleged lack of work ethic – a problem that Rangers fans were been all too familiar with.
McKay, on paper, was one of the most gifted youngsters on Rangers’ books for many a year. Blessed with speed, skill and the ability to open up a defence, it was no surprise that Mark Warburton jumped at the chance to bring his former Ibrox starlet to Forest in the summer.
But that ‘bargain’ £500,000 price-tag, as reported by The Sun, looked too good to be true at the time, and now it seems that Forest are discovering why Rangers were keen to let McKay leave on the cheap.
According to a poll conducted by HITC on Twitter, 63 per cent of Forest fans would like to see McKay leave in the summer – which rather sums up his decline.
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