Grading Nottingham Forest’s summer signings – Jason Cummings and Tendayi Darikwa

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Jason Cummings and Tendai Darikwa were part of a busy summer of incomings at Nottingham Forest.

Time is a rare luxury in modern football, and new signings don’t get given too much of it before they are adjudged a hit or miss.

A couple of months on from the summer transfer window, HITC is grading the first impressions made by the new arrivals.

Here we take a closer look at Nottingham Forest pair Jason Cummings and Tendayi Darikwa.

Jason Cummings

Mark Warburton spent two years at Rangers before becoming Forest boss and used his knowledge of the Scottish game to pluck Cummings from Hibernian for a fee in the region of £1m, according to Sky Sports.

Cummings scored at nearly one in two for Hibs but has yet to show the same potency for the Tricky Trees. He has one Championship goal in seven starts, although he has scored three goals in as many Carabao Cup games.

The 22-year-old fits in perfectly with the youthful, energetic attack that has inspired Forest’s ascent to playoff contention. He has a tireless work ethic that will keep the supporters on side until he gets his shooting boots shipped down from Edinburgh. At the moment though, he is a little lost among Forest’s plethora of striking options.

Grade: C

Tendayi Darikwa

The 25-year-old was part of Burnley’s Championship promotion campaign in 2015-16, but must have gotten a little rusty sitting on the sidelines at Turf Moor last season because his Forest career has started very shakily.

Darikwa seems to have little interest in his defensive duties as a right-back as he is constantly caught out of position, relying on his pace to get him out of trouble, and by then it is often too late. When Warburton has given him more attacking license as a wing-back, he has ventured forward at will but his passing and crossing has been sloppy.

The newly-capped Zimbabwe international has started 13 of Forest’s 16 league games this season, but was dropped for the 4-0 win over Reading in favour of crowd favourite Eric Lichaj and may struggle to get his spot back.

Grade: D