Nottingham Forest's Strategic Summer Signings
Nottingham Forest have gone for precision, not chaos, this summer.
After seasons defined by wholesale change, Oliver Glasner has drawn a hard line: small squad, clear ideas, no scattergun rebuild. The days of 13 new faces in one window are gone. This time, the moves have been targeted, expensive and deliberate.
The headline is obvious. Liam Delap for £50m is not a depth signing, it’s a statement. Forest see him as the long-term heir to Chris Wood, a centre-forward to grow with the project rather than patch it up. For Delap, it’s also a lifeline. His time at Chelsea never really started, let alone took off. Regular football at Forest offers something he hasn’t had for a while: rhythm, responsibility, and a manager willing to build around a defined role.
At the other end of the pitch, Ousmane Diomande’s £34m arrival speaks just as loudly. Glasner’s system lives and dies by the back three, and Diomande has been brought in to form the core of it alongside Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic. That trio has the potential to be both rugged and progressive, the kind of unit that can hold a high line and still win duels when games turn frantic.
The defensive reshaping doesn’t stop there. Daniel Munoz has followed Glasner from Crystal Palace, a move that instantly puts pressure on Ola Aina at right-back. Managers rarely bring familiar faces without a plan; Munoz knows the demands, the patterns, the pressing triggers. That understanding could tilt the battle for that flank before a ball is even kicked.
In midfield, the theme of trust continues. Xaver Schlager is another Glasner disciple from their Wolfsburg days, a player the coach knows inside out. He won’t arrive with the fanfare of a marquee replacement for Elliot Anderson, whose departure leaves a creative gap, but he brings reliability, intensity and tactical discipline. Glasner values those qualities as much as any headline name.
What’s striking is not just who has come in, but what Forest have chosen not to do. There has been no reckless scramble to bulk out the squad, no last-minute trolley dash. The club know they are not juggling European football this season. After last year’s draining run to the Europa League semi-finals – a journey that left them exhausted and undermanned by the time Aston Villa ruthlessly exposed them in a heavy second-leg defeat – the calendar looks kinder, the load more manageable.
That matters. Without midweek trips across the continent, a tighter group suddenly feels like a strength, not a risk. Players stay closer to the action, fringe names don’t disappear for months, and Glasner can drill his ideas into a core that actually plays together week after week.
There is also, for the first time in a while at Forest, something close to continuity. After last summer’s flood of new arrivals, this window feels almost restrained. Faces are familiar. Partnerships are established. The dressing room doesn’t have to learn each other’s names before it learns the pressing triggers.
Glasner has been clear about one thing: he is not a magician. He has warned against expecting instant transformation. That caveat still stands, but the landscape around him has shifted. Now he has a squad shaped to his liking, a schedule that won’t shred his resources, and signings who fit his blueprint.
For the first time since he walked through the door, the team on the pitch is starting to look like his. The real question is how far that clarity can take Nottingham Forest this season.
