Football Manager is brilliant, isn't it?
The game is so advanced these days, that there has been some examples of real-life football clubs using the games database to determine player quality before having seen a minute of their real-life abilities, so too have Sky Sports when analysing new signings.
In this article, I will be simulating five years, in which I have handed the club an extra £300m to play with, beyond the recently closed transfer window, in which The Reds made a number of exciting, high-profile signings, to see how far they can really go amidst all of the excitement and optimism there now is at the club.
*All screenshots have been taken from Football Manager 23, a Sports Interactive game.
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Season 1
That is absolutely glorious.
Following a summer of smart spending, Nottingham Forest manage to build well on their 16th placed finish to come a comfortable 13th in the Premier League in their second season since returning.
Not only did they survive well in the top flight, they also had a fun league cup run, being outed in the semi-final by Chelsea, repeating their run to the final four that they had in their first season back, although this time they made a better record of themselves in a 5-2 aggregate loss, rather than 5-0 to Man United.
A disgusting run of form from September to the end of October featured losses to Luton, who managed to stay up, wouldn't you believe, and the likes of West Ham and Fulham.
Cooper kept his job, though, and turned things around with a fantastic run of form that saw The Reds lose only twice from the end of March, and picked up huge wins over Arsenal, Brentford and, wait for it, Wolves away. Get in there.
In terms of appearances and goals and all that mess, star signing Ibrahim Sangare led the way with an amazing number of appearances, starting every single possible game of the season, closely followed by what appeared to be his standard midfield cohorts Dominguez and Danilo, who had 46 and 44 appearances out of a possible 47, with the latter returning a fantastic 9 goals and 4 assists in all competitions.
In the striking department, the land-share of goals was shared fairly evenly between them all. Hudson-Odoi led the way with 11, closely followed by Origi's 10. Dominguez, as said, had 9 and Awoniyi and MGW matched each other with 7. They also had 3 assists each as well. Elanga got 4, Niakhate grabbed 2, and Omobamidele, Montiel and Santos got one each.
Most interestingly, perhaps, was young prospect Esapa Osong, who made his first-team breakthrough and scored on his Premier League debut, adding in two more in the League Cup to finish on three.
On a more sour note, in that of those who featured less, there was just one singular game played all season by captain Joe Worrall, and no games at all for Willy Boly, Giulian Biancone, Murillo, Harry Toffolo and Wayne Hennessey.
There were also mere bit-part roles for Ryan Yates, Serge Aurier, Orel Mangala and Cheikhou Kouyate, starting only 8 games between them, and all of those were just for Yates and Aurier. All players mentioned there found themselves up for sale, with Serge already having agreed a move to Valencia in January, a month in which Forest added no further players.
Overall, though, a great start to life in the virtual world, building on what was achieved in real life the season before, and surely leaving optimism at an all-time high.
So then, time to simulate another ye- wait, they signed WHO?!
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Season 2
Oh.
Despite all of the incredible work done in season one, Nottingham Forest were relegated with a points tally that would have seen them comfortably survive the drop in each of their last two seasons in the top flight.
While only picking up 8 less points than the previous campaign, The Reds dropped 5 spots in the table to succumb to a cruel relegation, despite grabbing a late 6 points from the final 4 games of the season.
A barren winless run from the end of November to New Years Day, in which they threw away leads against Tottenham, Brighton, Aston Villa and Brentford, seemed to be the nail in the coffin, as the drop was confirmed by just 2 points.
There was a trip to Wembley to enjoy, however, as Forest faced off against Tottenham in a 3-0 loss in the FA Cup semi-final.
God knows why that second image is so distorted. Anyway.
Forest still were not afraid to spend, bringing in another £155m worth of talent, including the aforementioned Sergio Ramos, star Marseille talent Vitinha, and Crystal Palace wizard Michael Olise. More on them later.
Perhaps Forest's downfall was their bizarre attitude to sales. Not only were the options to permanently secure strong performers Divock Origi and Nuno Tavares not entertained, they also oversaw the departure of permanent stars like Awoniyi and Dominguez on loan as well as Felipe, Aina and Mangala on permanent departures.
Joining them on the chopping block were promotion heroes Scott McKenna and Joe Worrall to Crystal Palace and Cardiff, as well as letting go squad players like Kouyate and Richards. Also departing would be Mauro Arambarri, who had only just joined in the summer but would now head to Bournemouth after 33 decent showings. So, so strange.
In terms of performances, there wasn't really too much to complain over.
As noted, this season would have comfortably kept Forest in the Premier League most years, and there weren't any particularly poor seasons to highlight. The impact of some new signings was strange, however, as new-boy left-backs Marcos Alonso and Matt Targett played just 16 times between them.
A similarly odd lack of chances too fell for £30m man Olise, who started just once in all competitions and failed to register a single goal from his 28 games from the bench. Joining him in the mysterious bomb squad would be free signing Manor Soloman, who only played 5 times, all from the bench.
On the upside, Vitinha was a revelation, notching 21 goals in true Charile Austin-esque style in all competitions, finishing just 1 goal behind Erling Haaland in the golden boot race. He did, however, outscore all of his teammates by at least 16 goals, with Hudson-Odoi, new signing Alexey Miranchuk and MGW scoring 6 and 5 each, respectively.
The best performers of the season ended up being, obviously, Vitinha, as well as Niakhate, January recruit Lucas Torreira and Neco Williams, who came second in the club assist chart with 5, just behind Danilo who grabbed 8.
With relegation, comes transfer requests, and despite signing a new deal just days before relegation was confirmed, Ibrahim Sangare handed in his £40m notice alongside Gibbs-White, Niakhate, Torreira and... Biancone. Who does he think he is. Oh, and Ramos retired. Mint.
So then, a good old-fashioned Championship rebuild was in order. Can we roar straight back into the top flight? Who will stay and who will join?
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Season 3
Good heavens, that is some way to bounce back.
Nottingham Forest return to the Premier League in blistering style, falling short of Reading's 106 point record by just 3, securing another shot at the top flight in superb form.
The Reds simply could not be stopped on their mission to return as champions, losing just 7 league games and drawing 7 more, going back to the top flight on the back of an impressive 32 victories and 81 goals.
They could have secured the points record, but they took just a point from their final three fixtures to fall short by just three, in what may irk some fans, but I doubt the majority would care much.
There were no cup runs, though, as Forest saw themselves knocked out of their opening rounds of each domestic trophy at the hands of Everton and Ipswich, leaving them to focus only on ripping the league to shreds, and that they did.
An audacious amount of second-tier spending was taken on by Forest in their bid to bounce back, but that was helped massively by the departures of several wantaway men. Most notably, Arambarri made his short stay in Nottingham come to an end with a move to Bournemouth that saw them make a £16m profit on him.
As well as him, MGW heartbreakingly left for Brighton, Neco Williams went to Leeds and the wall and warrior that is Niakhate left for... Norwich. Alright then. Vlachodimos also departed on loan to Brighton to join up with MGW, but that one is turning permanent too.
Torreira moved back into European elite with a £22.5m move to Milan, and Panzo, Richards, Awoniyi, O'Brien, Yates, Aina and Bowler made up the pocket change with moves of their own. Chris Wood moved to sister club Olympiacos and Boly switched to Mexican side Tigres on free transfers.
The biggest sale, of course, was Hudson-Odoi. After signing for just £5m, he left for Fulham for a staggering £41.5m. A sorry sight to see him go, of course, but it paved the way for far better...
Filth. Pure filth.
After just about managing to beat the drop ahead of Forest by just 2 points, The Reds took their revenge on Palace by securing Wilfried Zaha and Ebere Eze, who for some reason decided that a drop to the Championship wasn't so bad after all. Joining them would be Harry Maguire, finally ending his Manchester United nightmare, and Leicester holding man Oliver Skipp.
Miranchuk made his loan move a permanent one from Atalanta, whilst Moroccan World Cup hero Bounou arrived alongside Besiktas' Ghezzal and former United defender Lindelof on free deals.
Datro Fofana and Marcelo Flores arrived on loan from Chelsea and Arsenal respectively. 34 year old Alessandro Florenzi joined on the cheap from Milan after just 6 appearances in 2 seasons in Italy. Ooo, and Chris Gunter returned! Oh, not that one? Right then.
The most important part of Forest's business was trying to keep around at least some of their big performers, and they managed that and then some with Sangare and Vitinha eventually knuckling down and carrying on, so too did Dominguez who played a crucial midfield role following his loan at Wolves. Both played big parts in the season, but most notably was Vitinha, who again scored 19 league goals to finish as runner up in the golden boot race, only this time to his loanee teammate Fofana, who grabbed 20.
In terms of those with less to shout about, Targett still couldn't find consistent minutes, and nor could the likes of Elanga and Montiel, one playing 20 times off of the bench only, and the other hardly featuring at all. Ghezzal too barely played. But most bemusingly, Matt Turner lost his number one spot to "Bono", but still started 11 matches and came off the bench 7 times as well, which is odd.
There was finally a breakthrough for Murillo (yes, still there) too, scoring a brace on his debut in a 5-0 opening day win over Birmingham, helped by a Zaha hat-trick, before making 9 further appearances all season.
Oh, and Osong? Who burst onto the scene with a Prem debut goal? He didn't feature at all in the relegation season, but did get two games in the Championship, scoring once.
The Crystal Palace regiment at the club were singing to the same tune, as Eze grabbed, in all comps, 4 goals and 12 assists, grabbing the most assists in the league ahead of Gunter with 11, and Zaha found the net 17 times to finish 3rd in the club scorer charts, and 4th in the league behind Watford's Nigerian nightmare Paul Onuachu. Olise? Erm, still not used. 3 starts, 15 off the bench, one goal, no assists. Is it an attitude thing? Oh, and Solomon still couldn't get a look in (two appearances, both off the bench) despite being listed as one of the best in the league. Very odd one.
But the best possible thing about it all? Despite all of this, relegation and all. Steve Cooper is still in charge. Time for Premier League part two. Fingers crossed...
Wait just a second.
He's BACK?!
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Season 4
EIGHTH IN THE LEAGUE. DOMESTIC CUP DOUBLE. NOTTINGHAM FOREST ARE GOING TO EUROPE. WHAT. ON. EARTH.
I am genuinely speechless. A ridiculous season of spending saw The Reds bring in yet another £300m of talent, yes, really, somehow, but this time they turn it around into their first major trophies since 1990!
It isn't like they had easy cup runs, either. Liverpool and Tottenham were both vanquished in the finals, before which they had beaten Man United, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool again across both cups. They almost headed out of the FA Cup at the hands of Lincoln, but two late goals from two of their new signings turned things around.
They had a great run of things in the league, too. Undefeated from the start of February to the start of May, they also boasted a 3-0 battering of Man City at The City Ground as well as taking out Newcastle and Brighton on their own patches. What a sensational return to life that is.
The sales were, thankfully, nowhere near as strange as they had been before. Olise finally ended his Forest nightmare in January by joining Villa, having once again failing to start a single match for The Reds. Thing is, he didn't for Villa either. And they got relegated. I feel sorry for him at this point.
Matt Targett also headed back to where it all began for him at Southampton, where he was sensational, to be fair. Vlachodimos ended his torrid time in Nottingham for good by making his loan to Brighton permanent, before being sold straight away by them in January after he was terrible there too.
Championship heroes Gunter and Zaha both waved goodbye to the club as well. The former heading back to Germany on loan with Leverkusen, and the latter joining Sassuolo on a permanent deal after scoring on an opening day loss to Chelsea. Lindelof also packed his bags early in January after agreeing to join Juventus at the end of his contract.
Elsewhere, Solomon finally, mercifully ended his bizarre spell at the club with a loan-to-buy to Leeds, Miranchuk headed over to Brice Samba with RC Lens on another one, and a 32-year-old Scarpa started a third straight loan at his home club Palmeiras. What on earth.
The signings this season to achieve what they did were, in a word, bonkers. £300m. I genuinely have not even seen PSG drop that much on a squad in this game. Absolutely bezerk.
No move would make a fan smile more than the return of Brennan Johnson, who had sadly flopped at Spurs but roared back into excellence at his true home. More on that later.
Lewis Cook, Jadon Sancho (yes, Jadon Sancho), Mathys Tel, Ademola Lookman, Samuele Ricci and Donyell Malen all arrived for sums near to or in excess of £50m. Still scratching my head on that one, but even more so when you see how little all of them played. Armel Bella-Kotchap also came in from Leipzig to join Maguire in defence, and a new first-choice stopper arrived in the form of Justin Bijlow.
Regen Irish wonderkid Chris Adams arrived from Chelsea, so too did Rovella and Silvan Hefti on loan. Also arriving would be Hugo Siquet from Newcastle, Jason Denayer from Shabab Al-Ahli, Alex Grimaldo from Benfica and Julian Brandt from PSG. If that isn't the craziest AI transfer window you have ever seen, I don't know what is.
Brennan Johnson is a starboy once again.
While his 14 league goals was fairly unsuspecting, the 27 he grabbed in all competitions fired his club onto cup success. Twice. Picking up the golden boot for both competitions along the way.
11 total goals behind was, shockingly, not someone the club had paid over the odds for, but our very own Esapa Osong. He scored on his senior and Premier League debut 3 years ago, but he stunned everyone with his contribution this time around, grabbing 16 goals in all competitions, as well as his first 4 England caps and England goal. What an astonishing rise for a player with almost no potential in the game.
For £63m, you would be forgiven for expecting more than 9 league starts from Donyell Malen. However, amidst a further 26 games off the bench, he did find the net 9 times with some crucial play as an impact sub. Still, though. £63m? Equally bemusing were the signings of Sancho and Lookman. Incredibly high rated players in the game, but Sancho only played 9 games, all off the bench and scoring once (against Bolton), with Lookman featuring in only five from the bench as well.
Murillo may have finally debuted last season, but he was back to square one with just one start in the FA Cup to his name this time around. Elanga and Dominguez also continued to see their roles diminish, with the Swede playing just 9 times from the bench (something about those United wingers) and Dominguez turning out 20 times with 13 starts before finding himself on the transfer list. Alongside Sangare of all people! He himself played plenty, but the club clearly don't fancy repaying the faith the Ivorian placed in them during the Championship return.
Eze too took a small step back, starting only 17 games and coming off the bench another 12, with 2 goals and 5 assists to his name. Not bad. What was certainly bad was the signing of Brandt. 10 starts and 18 off the bench, zero goal contributions and an average rating ducking below the 6.5 mark. Incredible.
Well, then. Faced with a foray into European away days and a pair of cups to defend. Steve Cooper is still in charge and the fans are back in a boisterous mood. How will it go? Will the extra football take it's toll?
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Season 5
Wow. That is incredible for a club who were in the Championship just two seasons ago. Back-to-back Europa League qualification.
Their European adventure took them to the knockout rounds where they were beaten soundly by Spurs, and their domestic cup defences weren't anything to shout about after early exits to eventual shock finalists QPR and Man City saw them left with a league to focus on.
But, just like they did in the Championship, the lack of distraction boosted them to brand new heights as Steve Cooper's incredible side finished in 5th, just 2 points away from qualifying to the Champions League.
There was to be one last trophy to secure in this 5-year experiment, though. Get in there.
Those in the Forest rankings searching for hefty, dirty, boozy away days abroad would have been in for a treat this season, with travels to Germany, Cyprus and Portugal on the menu. And Scotland. Eh.
A pretty miserable spell in March featuring zero points was quickly recovered by an April in which all games were won, including a 3-1 defeat of Man United. But, with March seeing The Reds exiting the Europa League and featuring a loss to Chelsea, who eventually pipped them to the top 4, it will have been a bitter time to look back on. But I think Forest fans would still be more than happy with another crack at the Europa League.
Nottingham Forest balancing the books with sales? Well I never.
Lazar Samardzic, signed the summer before from Udinese to the tune of £20m, was sold to Bavarian heavyweights Bayern after a successful year in the Premier League to give Forest a big profit of £36m. Ka-ching.
Also heading out would be Lewis Cook to Championship side Aston Villa, as well as Ibrahim Sangare to Qatari side Al-Sadd, bringing an end to 4 very fruitful years in the Garibaldi.
Montiel, Miranchuk, Denayer and Aguilera (son of Christina) all departed for mediocre sums, while Vitinha, Eze and Turner left on loan-to-buy deals. Scarpa, Toffolo and Elanga quietly brought an end to their time at the club, by being released. Heading out temporarily would be Murillo, who played 30 games for Burnley as they won the Championship, and Omobamidele, who put up a staggering rating of 7.81 for Shakhtar.
£111m extra in the kitty, then, with Marinakis still not afraid to launch incredible sums at the team. What European heavyweights are they inevitably going to sign?
Jesus CHRIST.
On second thoughts, how on earth did Forest not get top 4?!
Not only did those 5 incredible players arrive, sizable reinforcement also arrived by name of Emerson Royal, Luke Shaw, Kepa and James Maddison (who barely played, obviously). Joining them would be backup goalie Maduka Okoye, as well as Real Madrid loanee Fran Beltran. Unpictured, Rico Lewis and regen wonderkid Jaud Kasongo arrived, before the latter headed out on loan to Ipswich and won the Championship golden boot.
That is a sensational summer, but still wasn't their most expensive one, clocking in at a bargain price of £218m. Barely nowt with these lot really.
Well how did they all get on, then?
Well, for all of their spending, Esapa Osong continued his meteoric rise by topping the club scoring charts with a mighty 37 goals. Of all the money spent, it's a free academy player who has taken all the headlines. Insanity. There was also the small matter of him going to the World Cup and Nations League with England, where he now lies with 16 caps and 9 goals. What on earth. I add that this boy has really poor potential in this game. I am genuinely confused.
He was pipped in the Premier League scoring charts by Johnson, however, but the hunt for a top-flight golden boot for The Reds wages on as that damn robot Haaland beat the Welshman by 3 goals for the accolade. But Johnson is now club captain. A beautiful sight to behold.
How did they get De Bruyne and Tonali, by the way? Well, City failed to qualify for the Champions League and Newcastle didn't qualify for Europe at all. KDB was also on the transfer list at City after his years of service, so Forest coaxed both in with the lure of Europa League football and Steve Cooper's fist-pumps.
The signings paid off hugely, too. De Bruyne ended the season with 20 assists to show that the veteran hasn't lost a drop of "it", winning the award for the most in the Europa League on his way as well. Tonali ended up being incredible too, averaging a rating of 7.43 and grabbing 3 goals and 16 assists. That is some midfield. If only Gibbs-White were here to see it...
In terms of the defence, Maguire took a step back from his first-choice duties before agreeing a departure to Almeria, allowing Gvardiol, Upamecano and Bella-Kotchap to soak up the appearances and subsequent acclaim.
In terms of those bizarre players who arrived on big sums and inevitably never played, Maddison unfortunately joined in with them, starting just once and coming off the bench a further 3 times, grabbing a solo goal along the way (a screamer of a free-kick against Brighton that won goal of the month, to be fair). Sancho and Lookman continued their bemusing hunt for starts, with each appearing just 9 times each, all off the bench, neither of them contributing to any goals. Weird ones.
Mathys Tel saw a nice resurgance in action, finding the net 10 times, mostly as a substitute, to steal away Malen's role as super-sub. Malen played just 7 games, all off the bench, scoring none, and is now in the shop window.
Elsewhere, Oliver Skipp, signed back in the Championship, achieved his 100th appearance for the club, whilst Jack Grealish delighted everyone with a return of 10 goals and 9 assists. And also, assumingly, leading a decent bar crawl after the Community Shield win.
So, then. 5 years of insane transfer fees, relegations, league titles, trophies and European qualification comes to an end.
Those heroes that got us to the Prem in the first place are all but gone, with one returning in Johnson, and almost £1b was spent on new faces to propel Nottingham Forest far away from any shouts of relegation, and into rubbing shoulders with Europe's very best.
And through it all? Well, Esapa Osong became one of the world's best strikers, ahead of all his big-money teammates. And leading the way to all of this was one Steve Cooper. And an absolute shedload of cash.
