The Nottingham Forest January transfer window is still four months away, but the shape of it is already set. Forest shut the summer window on 1 September having spent roughly £101m on five first-team signings, and having sent six players out on loan in a frantic final 48 hours. Oliver Glasner now has the squad he asked for — almost. Two of the deals he wanted most never happened, and the gaps they were meant to fill have not gone anywhere.
Here is where the Reds stand, and what the winter window realistically has to fix.
What Forest actually did in the summer
It was a heavy summer of business either way. Xaver Schlager arrived on a free from RB Leipzig, Ousmane Diomande came in from Sporting CP for a reported £34m, Steven Benda joined as back-up goalkeeper, and then the club broke its own transfer record for Chelsea striker Liam Delap on 27 August, a deal reported at around £50m. Four days later Daniel Muñoz followed Glasner from Crystal Palace for a reported £22m. Gustavo Sa signed from Famalicao and was immediately loaned back.
Deadline day itself brought no arrivals. Two bids for Newcastle winger Jacob Murphy — £10m, then £15m — were rejected, and a reported £40m move for Everton teenager Harrison Armstrong got a long way down the road before collapsing. Armstrong stayed on Merseyside. You can read the full list of every Forest in and out this summer for the detail.
The outgoings were just as significant. Elliot Anderson left for Manchester City in a deal reported at around £116m, Taiwo Awoniyi was sold to Coventry City for £9m, David Carmo and Jota Silva both joined Olympiacos, and Omar Richards moved to Aris. Then came the loan clear-out: Morato to West Ham with an option to buy, Zach Abbott to Southampton after signing a new Forest deal to 2030, Omari Hutchinson to AC Milan with a reported €40m option, Dilane Bakwa to Lille, Eric da Silva Moreira to Excelsior and Josh Powell to Northampton Town.
Where the squad is genuinely strong
Two areas of the pitch look properly stocked. Centre-back is the obvious one: Nikola Milenković, Murillo, Diomande and Jair Cunha give Glasner four senior options with Tyler Bindon behind them, even with Morato and Abbott gone for the season.
The other is the flanks of a back four or five. Ola Aina, Neco Williams, Muñoz, Luca Netz and Nicolò Savona is a lot of full-back for one squad — which makes sense, because wide defenders who can play as wing-backs are the engine of how Glasner’s Palace side worked. Anyone who watched Muñoz there knows exactly what he was bought to do.
In attack, Delap, Chris Wood, Igor Jesus, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Dan Ndoye and Callum Hudson-Odoi is a forward line most mid-table Premier League clubs would take. Goalkeeper is settled too, with Matz Sels, John Victor and Benda.
The gap behind Morgan Gibbs-White
This is the one that matters. Morgan Gibbs-White is the talisman — he scored in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool on 29 August — and there is still no natural like-for-like understudy for him. When his knee kept him out of the Carabao Cup tie against Leeds on 25 August, Forest had to reshape rather than replace.
James McAtee is the internal answer, and there is a case that he is a better one than a January signing would be. But Forest’s midfield beyond that is functional rather than deep: Ibrahim Sangaré, Nicolás Domínguez, Schlager, captain Ryan Yates and McAtee across a 38-game season. Lose two of those five for six weeks and the double pivot gets very thin very quickly. If Forest spend in January, central midfield is the likeliest place.
What the Jacob Murphy bids told us
Clubs do not chase a 31-year-old winger on deadline day unless they think they are light there. Forest going twice for Murphy, and being knocked back twice, was an admission that the wide areas needed one more body — particularly with Hutchinson heading to Milan and Bakwa to Lille on the same day.
Right now that load falls almost entirely on Ndoye and Hudson-Odoi, with Muñoz pushing on from wing-back. It works. It just does not have much slack in it, and a winter injury there would hurt more than one at centre-back would. The Guardian’s club-by-club verdict on the window and the Nottingham Post’s read on Glasner’s strongest XI both land on a similar conclusion: a strong window, with one job left undone.
Who could leave in January
Some of Forest’s January business may be decided by other people. Hutchinson’s loan at Milan carries a reported €40m option and Morato’s at West Ham an option to buy, so both could turn into permanent sales rather than returns. Neither is a first-team problem for Glasner this season either way, but both would put money back on the table.
Beyond that, the squad is broadly the one the club wants. Forest have already trimmed hard — six loans out on deadline day alone, on top of five permanent departures and three released. There is not much fat left to cut. Our guide to where every loaned-out Red is spending the season tracks all of them.
What January realistically looks like
Two things are worth keeping in mind. The first is that January is a bad market: selling clubs mid-season want a premium, and the players who move tend to be the ones somebody else has already decided they can live without. The second is that Evangelos Marinakis has never shown much reluctance to spend, and a club that has just gone past £100m in a single summer is not short of ambition.
The most likely outcome is a small window rather than a big one — a midfielder, possibly a wide forward, and only if the first half of the season exposes those two gaps in a way pre-season did not. Much depends on the next few weeks. Forest have not won yet in 2026/27 after that 0-1 home defeat to Leeds on the opening weekend and the point at Anfield, and Tottenham arrive at the City Ground on Saturday 6 September with the Reds still looking for a first three points.
Win a few of those and January stays quiet. Do not, and the winter window becomes something rather more urgent.
