Davies to recommend 'major' additions for Forest in January
BILLY Davies will recommend that Nottingham Forest complete 'major work' during the January transfer window, to ensure they remain competitive in the Championship.
The Reds boss wants to add as many as five new faces to his ranks, as he believes a squad of 24 players is required to see them through to the end of the campaign.
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Billy Davies
Forest will be looking to extend their seven-match unbeaten run when Bristol City visit the City Ground today.
But Davies fears that his squad is already becoming stretched by an injury list of just four or five players, with James Perch, Robert Earnshaw and Joel Lynch all likely to be included on the bench, despite not being fully fit.
"I will do the exact same as I have done since day one," said Davies. "I will recommend to the board – as I did in the last January transfer window and in the summer – which players we should be looking at.
"Whatever happens is down to Nigel Doughty, it is his club, it is his money and he can do what he feels is necessary.
"But I have said since I arrived that I would like a squad of 24 players. I have always said that we need to carry a strong 24-man squad – and strong is the key word.
"Do the calculations yourself. You can work out what work we have to do to get the kind of squad we want.
"No doubt, we are talking about major work."
Davies may resume his efforts to land Spurs full-back Gareth Bale, while he is also likely to target a central defender, a winger and a goalscoring central midfielder.
But any transfers will have to be approved and secured by the club's acquisitions panel.
Davies is delighted with Forest's current run of form however – and admits they are playing far better football than he had expected.
"The performances have been better than I thought they would be," he said.
"I expected that I would have to do the same as I had done at my previous clubs, which is to come in and make the side hard to beat and then, in year two or three, start to work on the flowing football.
"Then you can start to get a pattern to your play and perform with a bit of stability.
"But I have to say I am really surprised at how quickly the players have gelled and at the quality of football they are playing.
"That has come a lot sooner than I expected. I am delighted and I hope it continues but, at the same time, there is a lot of work ahead."
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by Alex, London
Tuesday, November 10 2009, 11:21AM
“We have a very good squad right now in terms of quality, but lack a little depth and to strengthen it further we need very good players.
"Spurs full-back Gareth Bale, while he is also likely to target a central defender, a winger and a goalscoring central midfielder."
Gareth Bale (Spurs) and Shorey (Villa) have been mooted but lets get some of the better boys back from the academy:-
Central defender - Dawson
Winger - Reid
Goalscoring central midfielder - Jenas
Flog Adebola and Garner (Maybe Earnshaw) and get Harewood back too!”
by Steve'o', bradford
Saturday, November 07 2009, 11:35PM
“first thing first,,, what an idiot you are phil (pride park) talking about threats to tyson- get a life, oh and where are you in the league ?. We all know forest need a few new additions, 2 def, 2 mid, 1 possible attacker but only 2 of them buys the others loans then maybe buy at end of season, it worked for us last time, blackstock,gunter etc so why not again. Things are on the up at forest and long may it continue !!”
by chris, basingstoke , ram
Saturday, November 07 2009, 2:08PM
“Billy Liar making big buys, I can't wait, Palace would sell you Claude Davis for £3 million. Bring on January”
by REDRAZOR, NOTTINGHAMSREDCITY
Saturday, November 07 2009, 1:19PM
“just a message to the folk who are in charge of blocking and allowing posts through on this site ,
please pull your finger out and do your job please ,
for every 4 posts i and a good few others put on here you only put 2 through yet every sheep scum that wants to come on here and bad mouth us is let through ,
please look on the rams site look on the foxes site and see how many people are posting comments on there everyday on every story , then look at ours !
how many ? yes 3 or 4 on a good day ! the scums site has anything from 8 to 38 for each story , this is because they dont get blocked at every turn by the idiots in charge of doing the blocking
i know many more forest fans who dont comment on here because they are sick of spending 10 minutes putting down thier veiws on thier beloved forest team only to be given the knock back , this leads to a very boring and very quiet forest site , thanks alot ,
please sort it out cause most days this site is empty and you are the reason why ! from a forest fan all my life its not acceptable at all !
i bet this one gets blocked to ,
SORT IT OUT !”
by RICHY RICH, the middle east bank
Saturday, November 07 2009, 12:37PM
“Billy need to borrow some cash for the transfer window in january we have loads of money”
by mandy, southwell
Saturday, November 07 2009, 12:31PM
“Think Billy is only looking at 2 or 3 signings really.I think he,s working on the old adage if I ask for want I really want ,I,ll only get 1 or 2 so I,ll ask for 5.He,s not daft our Billy.”
by hahaha, hehehe
Saturday, November 07 2009, 12:17PM
“Nah sorry rimblow, the only team in the e.midlands who lose by scorelines of 1-5 is your lot lol. In fact watching your lot is akin to going to a game of rugby....lots of balls in the air, and big scorelines ahahahahah.”
by Joe Baker, Zigger Zagger
Saturday, November 07 2009, 12:15PM
“Interesting article, my hopes are that history isn't going to repeat itself. Rember all the promises when Paul Hart got us into the playoff zone before xmas? and ND failed to back him and bring in more players? . Well I hope ND learnt a lesson that day because if he had invested more money then maybe just maybe we would have made the prem and he would have been able to get some of his money back, and not ended up with 3 years in the doldrums of league 1.
January is the time we have to "push on" and we will need investment instead of sitting back on our laurels, because make no doubt the other clubs in and around the playoff will invest, and if we dont then we will be in the brown & smelly stuff.”
by T, Notts
Saturday, November 07 2009, 12:13PM
“I'm not sure about 5 new signings to be honest, left back, centre back, maybe a utility player but what else?
We've also got players coming back from injuries, granted they might not be good enough for the prem but they will do the job in the ccc.
The board has 2 months to decide between push for play offs/promotion or establishing themselves in this league.
Most reds before the start of this season would have been happy with a midtable finish. I think we will achieve that with our current squad. On that basis spends or no spends in January, we should be happy. Although we need that centre back and left back...which are unfinished business from the summer.”
by 61616161, Rambo Hotline
Saturday, November 07 2009, 11:58AM
“I had a feeling you would be back after last nights lucky win RAMBLOW. We not seen you for ages! Enjoy it while it lasts, back to loosing next week hahahahah”