If you were to look into Nottingham Forest's seasonal spending spree from the outside with no context provided, you would be forgiven for thinking that The Reds were throwing cash around manically with little planning and without process of thought.
As ferocious as Forest have been in their spending, fans of the club have been ferocious in equal measures in their defence of the teams transfer strategy and the requirements of the squad that led to the arrival of 31 new players over the course of the season.
That is until you look towards the striker department.
In the summer, club captain Lewis Grabban and Aston Villa loanee Keinan Davis both departed the City Ground, leaving the clubs only forward option to be Sam Surridge, who had arrived six months prior on a budget deal from Stoke City.
Attempts by the club to bring Davis back permanently matched attempts to get Grabban to sign a contract extension in their failure, and Steve Cooper turned towards the transfer market, bolstering the attack with two Nigerian forwards who were comfortable on the wing and down the centre; Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis.
Things very quickly turned sour for Dennis at Forest, however. Where his compatriot was thrust straight into the starting eleven as the man Cooper wanted to replace the pace and power left by Davis, Dennis was left to feed off of ten minute scraps. His first league start came in October, where he rose high to meet a Morgan Gibbs-White free-kick, nodding home a goal on his full debut.
He was unable to replicate the feat in the next game, as Forest's well-documented away day woes continued on with a 1-0 loss to Wolves, in which Dennis was hauled off after 70 minutes of adding very little.
He was criticised by fans for his lack of energy, and his slow and lazy approach to Nottingham Forest's style of play, particularly as a player who was known for possessing great pace and tenacity in his sole Premier League season with Watford.
Watford fans did warn Forest fans of the forwards attitude. For a tidy initial fee of £10m, a lot of Hornets were surprisingly glad to see their top scorer of last year leave the club behind, claiming he was a bad apple and did not possess the work rate expected of him in the top flight.
Reasons foretold to us like that made the breaking news that Dennis was free to find a new club just four months after his arrival slightly less of a surprise. He was unable to immediately depart Nottingham as he had featured for two clubs this season already (in the Championship for Watford) so his departure was apparently postponed until the summer.
Since Wolves away, Dennis has been limited to just one more league start; notching himself his (so far) only Premier League assist this season in a 2-2 draw with Brentford at the seemingly impenetrable City Ground.
Since the return of the Premier League from World Cup action, Dennis has yet to start a league game. With the now-heavily criticised winter arrivals of Coopers former Swansea colleague Andre Ayew on a free transfer and New Zealand international Chris Wood for £15m, Dennis has been reduced to a pitiful 126 minutes of top flight action, with the bulk of that coming in yesterdays 3-1 defeat on the road to Tottenham, with Dennis replacing the silent Jesse Lingard.
In that performance, however, we saw a different attitude to Dennis and a seemingly new approach to the way he plays. Similar to what we saw him bring off of the bench in another away loss to Fulham and a draw at home to Everton, Dennis played with a fire and an energy that we had yet to see unlocked in a red shirt this season.
After coming off the bench against Tottenham, Dennis completed more tackles, duels, dribbles and passes than the man he replaced in Lingard in the exact same amount of time as a half-time sub. This mirrored similar stats shown against Fulham and Everton, where he also recorded more shots against both than his in-game predecessors.
There were two big things that came into question over his performances for Forest this season; his level of effort and his decision making in possession. While the latter still left a bit to be desired, his work-rate and energy seemed to improve ten-fold in recent fixtures.
The common feeling amongst Forest fans is that two players that are seemingly ahead of Dennis in the pecking order in Ayew and Wood are simply not good enough. Save for a maiden goal in a stunning draw against Manchester City, Wood seems to be incredibly static and, well, wooden in attack, whereas Ayew looks to have added almost nothing in his six substitute appearances in the Premier League so far.
If Dennis can show his improvement, if he can turn it around and prove to Cooper that he is willing to listen and provide a new dynamic to Nottingham Forest, then there would likely be little doubt over whether or not he should be re-introduced to the starting fold.
In light of the performances shown by the likes of Wood, Lingard and Ayew that have been deemed as lazy and quiet (the latter of the three missing a penalty at the death against Tottenham yesterday), in addition to injuries to Wood and star man Brennan Johnson that add to a list featuring Taiwo Awoniyi, the stage seems set for Dennis to take advantage and work his way back into contention.
If the last three showing off the bench are anything to go by, then Emmanuel Dennis looks to have far more to offer the club than some of his teammates. As The Reds continue to look for the answers to their woeful form on the road, the Nigerian may hold them as Steve Cooper looks to change their travelling fortunes.
Whether or not anything transpires and works out is another kettle of fish, but Nottingham Forest may quickly find out that the missing energetic cog to their trudging attack lies right under their noses.