Championship promotion pushers Nottingham Forest reportedly want Crystal Palace’s Premier League benchwarmer Wickham in January.
The fact that Nottingham Forest are riding high in fourth place in the Championship feels like a minor miracle when you consider that they have only one striker who looks capable of hitting the back of the net.
With Rafa Mir failing to make any sort of an impact since he joined on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sabri Lamouchi’s side are totally indebted to their eight-goal top scorer Lewis Grabban.
A centre-forward who previously helped fire Norwich to promotion, Grabban has started 17 of Forest’s 18 league games so far this season. But the two-time European champions are not even halfway through a gruelling campaign and even the evergreen 31-year-old will need a well-earned rest at some point.
Fortunately, the January transfer window is just around the corner. And reports this week suggest that a striker, an old-school targetman to be specific, is right at the top of Forest’s shopping list.
Speaking to Nau, the agent of 35-year-old Young Boys talisman Guillaume Hoarau has claimed that Nottingham Forest have been sniffing around his Europa League-bothering client.
And, just two days later, Connor Wickham has been mentioned as a potential addition too with the Telegraph reporting that the injury-hit £7m frontman is free to leave Crystal Palace on loan next month.
Wickham played under Forest legend, and recently departed manager, Martin O’Neill after joining Sunderland from Ipswich for £8 million in 2011. O’Neill even likened him to Emile Heskey in an interview with The Mirror.
“Without a doubt that would be nice. Connor has excellent natural ability. Over time I think he could develop into something really good,” said the softly-spoken Irishman, drawing comparisons with a bull of a striker he got the best out of at Aston Villa.
Wickham quickly slipped down the pecking order under O’Neill however and, tellingly, produced his best football for Sunderland once the manager had been sacked.
The 26-year-old might be a little relieved then that O’Neill was handed his P45 by Forest over the summer.
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