In late January last year, it required an urgent intervention from Steve Cooper to ensure Brennan Johnson remained a Nottingham Forest player.
Brentford had put a club-record bid on the table for the Wales forward and Forest’s hierarchy were giving it serious consideration.
Head coach Cooper made it starkly clear how important he believed Johnson to be to Forest’s promotion hopes and, by the end of the following season, Johnson had not only been a key figure in their rise from the Championship, but also in helping Forest survive in the Premier League.
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Brennan Johnson - made in Nottingham
The 18 goals he scored in the second tier to help Forest go up via the play-offs were followed by a respectable eight in his debut year in the top flight. The decision not to sell was proven, beyond doubt, to have been a wise one.
Fast forward to this summer and the landscape had changed.
Largely for financial reasons, it made more sense for Forest to accept a £47.5million ($60m) bid for Johnson from Tottenham Hotspur as the September 1 deadline approached.
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This time, even Cooper reluctantly accepted that it was the right time to sell. But he also knew that doing so would create a significant void in the team that would need to be filled.
Forest had already spent £15million to sign Sweden international Anthony Elanga from Manchester United in July, and Cooper had already launched a charm offensive to try to lure a player who was more than familiar to him than to his bosses at the City Ground.
Callum Hudson-Odoi was a key figure in the England Under-17 side Cooper had led to World Cup success in 2017 and, while he had seen his career stall slightly in the years since, the Welshman knew what he was capable of.
Forest’s scouting team believed that the combination of Elanga and Hudson-Odoi, while neither is exactly the same kind of player as Johnson, could replicate the attacking threat his pace and directness had provided over the previous two seasons.
Hudson-Odoi had several suitors after Chelsea made it known he was available for transfer and his old England manager was a major factor in persuading the 22-year-old to come to Nottingham, where he has already been hunting for a house so that he can put down roots, having spent last season out on loan in Germany.
Cooper bombarded Hudson-Odoi with phone calls and his message was clear. He knew what this player was capable of. He had seen him at his best, at a time when the teenager was regarded as one of the brightest talents of his generation. Bayern Munich tried to sign Hudson-Odoi more than once, including one offer that could have been worth as much as £70million.
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Having rebuffed numerous approaches for Hudson-Odoi in his younger days, last summer it was more a case of ushering him out of the Stamford Bridge exit. He was, for much of that window, not expected to move far, with west London neighbours Fulham regarded as being his most likely destination. But Forest were successful and the feeling at the City Ground was that the fee — an initial £3million, possibly rising to £5m — represented excellent value for money.
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There have been early-season moments of promise; signs they can both prove to be quality additions.
Hudson-Odoi scored an outstanding debut goal against Burnley — one he believes is the best of his career.
Callum Hudson-Odoi goal against Burnley has been elected Nottingham Forest Goal of the Month #nffc pic.twitter.com/PpSJInT31o
— Talk Forest TV (@OfficalTftv) October 3, 2023
Elanga had demonstrated his searing pace with one remarkable run in a pre-season friendly against Leeds United. And he repeated the feat on a bigger stage a few weeks later, when he rampaged down the Emirates Stadium pitch to set up a superb goal for Taiwo Awoniyi, as Forest gave Arsenal a late scare on the Premier League’s opening weekend.
Anthony Elanga's brilliant breakaway and Taiwo Awoniyi's pinpoint finish make it game on 👀
That's a stunning counter attack from Nottingham Forest! ⚡️
📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & discovery+ pic.twitter.com/SPaxjk0pD5
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 12, 2023
He followed that up by scoring Forest’s winner at Chelsea three weeks later.
Cool as you like 🥶@anthonyelanga gets his first in the Garibaldi in style ✨ pic.twitter.com/WKYZ0A3GBS
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) September 2, 2023
But the bigger picture is that, before last weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace trip, Forest had scored a relatively modest eight goals in the first seven league matches, which put them only a tiny bit ahead of last season, when they averaged exactly a goal per game. Their xG of 6.75 was below-par too – only Fulham (6.60), Burnley (5.82) and Sheffield United (5.54) had mustered less attacking threat.
After the Palace game — when Forest had three ‘if only’ moments that might have resulted in goal-of-the-season contenders, through Morgan Gibbs-White, Murillo and Gonzalo Montiel — finished 0-0, that average had a familiar look about it. Eight games, eight goals.
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It would be easy to say Forest have missed Johnson. In many senses they do, but there is a genuine sense that, along with Gibbs-White and the likes of Divock Origi, Danilo, Andrey Santos and Nicolas Dominguez — and even Murillo, following his remarkable display at Selhurst Park — they have built a squad with enough creativity, intelligence and flair to build on last season.
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For the second year running, though, this is a new-look Forest side; they are a work in progress.
Last season, it took Cooper many weeks and some serious tactical tinkering to find the right formula; to find the shape of a side that was equipped to hold their own in the Premier League.
Forest have built a squad that looks to have attacking threat on paper. It might take a while for them to demonstrate that properly on grass.
In the meantime, the relationship between Cooper and Hudson-Odoi could speed up the knitting-together of this team.
“He is a very, very good guy, a very good manager and hopefully he will get the best out of me. I believe in him and I trust him,” Hudson-Odoi said of Cooper in a recent interview with UK broadcaster Sky Sports.
Hudson-Odoi believes he has matured as a character and a player; that he has a better understanding of his responsibility to the side he is part of. His confidence took a blow when he tore an Achilles against Burnley in April 2019, which he initially believed was just a bout of cramp. That is a serious injury for any player, but particularly for a youngster who relies on explosive pace as part of his skill set.
Now, after last season’s loan to Bayer Leverkusen, Hudson-Odoi — who won three England caps as a teenager — is a young man who recognises that his best chance of contributing to Forest is to believe in himself to deliver goals and assists.
“They are the things that always got me to where I was before,” he says. “It has been a while since people have seen the player I can be. Where has he gone? It has been a while since I was 17 or 18 and everyone was talking about me.
“Now it is like I am coming back into the Premier League, everything is happening. I am beyond motivated, I am beyond driven… I want to show everyone the player I can be. I want to be confident. I want to be creative on the ball and take risks. I want to be the best version of myself.”
Hudson-Odoi’s confidence is reflected in his hopes for the season, which sees him insist that a top-10 finish should be Forest’s goal – big talk for a team who only secured their top-flight survival in the penultimate game back in May, even if their 13 summer additions have definitely made them stronger.
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Cooper retains a more grounded mentality, believing that mere progress should be their target. Ask him about their ambitions for the season ahead and his response will normally be to insist Forest are only focusing on their next game.
This two-week international break could prove to be an important time for Cooper and his players. Many will have departed to represent their countries, but there will be an opportunity to work with the likes of Hudson-Odoi and Murillo on the training pitch.
And, in Hudson-Odoi and Elanga, Cooper does believe Forest have signed a duo who can pick up where Johnson left off.
“That is the intention (for them to fill the Brennan void),” he says. “We have been happy with their attitude, their engagement and their willingness to take things on board. We are just trying to free them up to be the players that they are.
“They are both exciting talents and the intention is for them to be delivering; for them to be themselves, and to be the players we believe they can be.”
(Top photo: Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
