Watford youngster Jerome Sinclair joined Birmingham City over Nottingham Forest in January – but failed to make an impact in the Championship.
When Watford made it clear that they were willing to loan out Jerome Sinclair in January, Nottingham Forest did not wait around to make their interest clear.
According to Sky Sports, the East Midlands giants enquired about signing the 20-year-old for the remainder of the season, such was their desperation to improve a team seemingly sliding towards relegation.
Eventually, however, Sinclair chose Birmingham City instead. And, in a strange quirk of fate, both clubs were forced to wait until the final day to seal their Championship survival, victories against Bristol City and Ipswich Town respectively sending Blackburn Rovers plummeting into League One instead.
Although it’s fair to say Sinclair did not play a major role in Birmingham’s rather fortunate escape. The one-time Liverpool prodigy, who became their youngest ever Premier League debutant at the age of just 16, only featured five times under Gianfranco Zola before failing to make a single appearance once Harry Redknapp was parachuted in to save the day in dramatic style.
And, somewhat unsurprisingly, Sinclair failed to muster a goal in his 231 minutes on the pitch in Birmingham colours – his last coming on the third of March.
Therefore, although Nottingham Forest too endured a nail-biting end to the season, they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that losing out on Sinclair to a relegation rival did not cost them their Championship status.
Imagine the backlast against much-maligned owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi if Sinclair had fired Birmingham to safety at Forest’s expense.
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