🦁 PL Previews: Nottingham Forest are back in the big time | OneFootball

After a long 23 year wait, Nottingham Forest are back in the top tier of English football.

Steve Cooper’s side made to the Premier League via the play-offs last season but is this a step too far for a team way ahead of schedule?

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.

Transfers 🔁

In: Taiwo Awoniyi (Union Berlin, £17m), Neco Williams (Liverpool, £16m), Moussa Niakhaté (Mainz, £8.7m), Omar Richards (Bayern Munich, £8.5m), Giulian Biancone (Troyes, £5m), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United, free), Dean Henderson (Manchester United, loan), Wayne Hennessey (Burnley, free), Lewis O’Brien (Huddersfield, £6m), Harry Toffolo (Huddersfield, £4m)

Out: Brice Samba (RC Lens, £4.3m), Jayden Richardson (Aberdeen, undisclosed), Tobias Figueiredo (Hull, free), Jonathan Panzo (Coventry, loan), Ethan Horvath (Luton, loan), Mohamed Drager (Luzern, loan), Tyrese Fornah (Reading, loan), Gaëtan Bong (released)

Transfer balance: -£60.9m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: Brennan Johnson

Nottingham Forest have spent big this summer to try and stay afloat in the Premier League but arguably their most important player will be the one who almost single-handedly fired them to this point in the first place.

Brennan Johnson was a revelation in the Championship last season, winning Forest’s Player of the Year trophy come the end of the campaign having scored 16 and assisted a further nine goals in 46 appearances.

The 21-year-old has been coveted by almost every big club in the top flight but one more year leading the Forest line could make him a City Ground icon.

What has changed since last season? 🤔

What a difference a year makes.

In August 2021, Chris Hughton was still the manager and coming off the back of a season in which they had finish 17th in the Championship.

Since then, Steve Cooper has taken the hot seat and gone about transforming one of England’s sleeping giants.

The likes of Brennan Jonson, Sam Surridge and Joe Lolley have become exceptional talents whilst this summer they’ve moved early to sign Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin, Omar Richards from Bayern Munich and Dean Henderson on loan from Manchester United.

It looks like an impressive squad on paper but will the realities of Premier League football prove too much?

Predicted XI 🔮

(5-2-2-1) — Henderson; Richards, Biancone, McKenna, Worrall, Williams; Yates, Colback; Johnson, Lingard; Awoniyi

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 18th FA Cup: Third round Carabao Cup: Fourth round

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.