In hindsight, selling your best player with no time to replace him probably wasn’t the brightest idea Fawaz Al-Hasawi has ever had.
Former Nottingham Forest prodigy Oliver Burke insists he has no regrets about leaving the City Ground with his new club level on points at the top of their league, as reported by Sky Sports.
The 20-year-old winger has only started once and tallied just 167 minutes of action for newly-promoted German outfit RB Leipzig, with his new boss Ralf Hasenhuttl less than impressed with his defensive work rate thus far.
However, Burke did assist the winner in a dream debut against Borussia Dortmund, setting Leipzig on their way to second place in the Bundesliga table, behind Bayern Munich only on goal difference, while his former employers have plummeted towards the nether regions of the Championship with the pressure continuing to mount on Philippe Montanier (below).
Forest have won just once in ten league fixtures since Burke’s departure in the summer, and the most expensive player in Scottish history perhaps unsurprisingly admits that he has no regrets about swapping the mid-table of England’s second tier for a potentially historic title fight with Leipzig.
“I guess it is a brave move for me but I don’t regret any of my decisions whatsoever,” Burke told Sky Sports.
“I am very happy and every day I keep learning, keep getting better and better and see where it gets me but it is a great club.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be second in the Bundesliga at the moment and still doing so well and comfortably winning matches as well as a team. We are doing very well and it is great.
“I want to win the Bundesliga and I want to win it with RB Leipzig. Why not? We have the players, the quality; we have a great team so there is no reason why we can’t.
“For sure, it is a good shout to be in the Champions League but we take every game as it comes and we keep working hard and certainly we will get there with our hard work and dedication.”
Burke’s departure drew much ire from a fanbase who have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way their club has been run in recent years.
Controversial owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi (below) claimed that he would use the £13 million received from the sale of their prized asset to reinvest in the squad, the BBC reported.
However, with Burke finalising his exit with just three days of the transfer window remaining, Forest ran out of time to replace his goals and creativity in the final third, leaving their squad with a damaging absence of quality in attack.
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