Bordeaux striker Josh Maja missed out on a £4 million deadline day move to Nottingham Forest after failing a medical with the Championship strugglers, according to L’Equipe.
Back in 2017/18, Cardiff City finished second in the table under Neil Warnock, securing automatic promotion back to the Premier League despite the fact that none of their players scored more than ten goals across the entire campaign.
Cardiff, however, feel like the exception rather than the rule.
Generally speaking, you tend to achieve a lot more when you’ve got a prolific centre-forward leading the line – just ask Nottingham Forest.
While Lewis Grabban enjoyed the best season of his league career in 2019/20, Forest only narrowly missed out on a place in the play-off.
But as Grabban’s form tailed off dramatically the following campaign, the two-time European champions went from top-six challengers to relegation candidates in the blinking of an eye.
So, with Forest currently nailed to the bottom of the Championship table, their hopes of rising up the table and putting together an impressive run of results will probably depend on whether the likes of Grabban or Lyle Taylor can find some form.
Considering how things have gone for the duo over the last 12 months, the phrase ‘wishful thinking’ comes to mind.
Who will score the goals for Nottingham Forest the season?
Maja, an instinctive, penalty-box poacher, felt like potentially the missing piece in Chris Hughton’s jigsaw, a natural-born finisher capable of putting away chances created by the likes of Philip Zinckernagel, Alex Mighten and the exciting Brennan Johnson.
According to L’Equipe, Forest had agreed a £4 million deal with cash-strapped Bordeaux.
But after failing a medical right at the end of the transfer window, Maja and Forest have been left in limbo – the former out of favour in Wine Country, the latter crying out for a goalscorer that just isn’t going to arrive.
The East Midland outfit did manage to secure the services of Club Olimpia youngster Braian Ojeda, West Ham starlet Xande Silva and Olympiakos defender Mohamed Drager while a loan deal for Middlesbrough’s Djed Spence is still to be confirmed.
But there’s a limit to what Forest can achieve as they prepare for another gruelling Championship season without a reliable number nine.
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