After spending over £140 million, can ambitious Nottingham Forest break into the top four?

Managers are fond of saying the season is a marathon and not a sprint but, whatever the length of the race, it helps to get off to a good start.

Nottingham Forest certainly did that on Sunday, thumping Brentford 3-1 at home to open their Premier League campaign in style.

Ambition pulsed loudly around a sun-drenched City Ground.

Desire was visible and audible in the stands and on the pitch.

New signings James McAtee and Omari Hutchinson were paraded before kick-off and the Forest anthem ‘Mull of Kintyre’ was belted out with remarkable gusto.

A huge banner inscribed with the words ‘Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul’ hung from the Trent End.

 

If that felt a bit melodramatic, then it was for good reason.

Forest are going places – splashing a cool £67.5 million on McAtee and Hutchinson is proof enough.

Once the action got underway, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men wasted little time taking Brentford to the cleaners.

Chris Wood opened the scoring after five minutes and, after debutant winger Dan Ndoye added a second, the New Zealand captain added his second to make it 3-0 at the break.

Nuno’s players walked off at half-time to a standing ovation.

The sun was shining, the script was written, the stage was theirs.

Nuno stood smiling with his arms folded for much of the game.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis watched on from the director’s box as he was serenaded by the home faithful.

The mood was of a club going places.

Less than 24 hours later, Forest announced the signing of French striker Arnaud Kalimuendo from Rennes for £26 million.

Staggeringly, that took Forest’s summer spending past £140 million following the acquisition of Hutchinson, McAtee, Angus Gunn and Brazilian duo Igor Jesus and Jair Cunha.

Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White were superb against Brentford and appear ripe for big seasons.

Gibbs-White, the Forest captain, snubbed a move to Tottenham Hotspur this summer and instead signed a new three-year deal at the City Ground.

Again, it was indicative of the ambition from the two-time European Cup winners these days.

Most impressive, perhaps, is the way in which Nuno has significantly upgraded his squad without a huge net spend.

Forest have brought in over £100million in outgoings this summer following the sale of Anthony Elanga, Ramon Sosa, Danilo, Andrew Omobamidele, Lewis O’Brien, Matt Turner and Carlos Miguel.

They also have their first European campaign in nearly 30 years to look forward to this season.

Forest flirted with Champions League qualification for much of last term before eventually finishing seventh in the Premier League.

That marked their best top-flight position since they ended the 1994/95 season in third.

The question now is whether Nuno’s revamped squad can better last season’s performance and maybe even deliver Forest’s first major trophy since 1990.

After a busy summer of comings and goings which is not over yet, their rise looks set to continue.

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