Nottingham Forest fans respond on Twitter as Warburton discusses sacking

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Mark Warburton was sacked by Nottingham Forest and the Championship giants soon replaced him with Aitor Karanka.

It is fair to say Aitor Karanka has presided over a different style of recruitment to his Nottingham Forest predecessor Mark Warburton.

Whereas Warburton brought in a lot of young, hungry yet unproven talents, Karanka has reinforced the squad with solid Championship pros like Adlene Guedioura, Ben Watson, Jack Colback and Lee Tomlin.

In total, six new players arrived at the City Ground on transfer deadline day last month with Watson joining on a free after the window shut. He is not the only unattached player expected to join Karanka’s side.

And the fact that Forest had to embark on such a shake-up speaks volumes about how many of Warburton’s signings performed in the East Midlands.

Jason Cummings (above) barely featured before returning to Scotland with Rangers, Barrie McKay’s form has dropped dramatically while even the grizzled Daryl Murphy has struggled, scoring once since October and failing miserably to replace Britt Assombalonga.

So you can understand why Forest fans are not too ready to agree with Warburton as he attempts to defend a transfer policy that played a big part in him losing his job on the final day of 2017.

“I think the goals for us were to create a young hungry squad. Selling Britt Assombalonga for £15m made perfect sense,” he told BBC Radio Five Live (broadcast on 7th February) while admitting that he wanted to sign even more young players in January.

“In terms of experience, the likes of Daryl Murphy coming in for £2m was good business. He got the goals. Then we went young with Barrie McKay, Jason Cummings and promoted Tyler Walker. You have to build and give the young players time.

“The lack of clarity (about his sacking) is the most frustrating thing, but the owners are the owners and that’s their right.”

With Forest fans confident that Karanka can turn this leaky side into one capable of fighting at the top of the table, Warburton appears to be fighting a losing battle in claiming that his plan was a good one.