Nottingham Forest: Sky Bet Championship season preview 2016/17
Monday 1 August 2016 14:36, UK
All the transfer news, fan opinion, predictions and odds ahead of Nottingham Forest's 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Last year's finish: 15th
Manager: Philippe Montanier
Title odds: 50/1 with Sky Bet
First five games: Burton Albion (H), Brighton (A), Brentford (A), Wigan (H), Leeds (H)
Players In: Thomas Lam (PEC Zwolle, Free), Apostolos Vellios (Iraklis, £1m), Stephen Henderson (Charlton, Free), Damien Perquis (Toronto, Free)
Players Out: Robert Tesche (Birmingham, Free)
Fan's view - Jack McCormick (@jack_mccormick)
Expectation: Heart says play-off push; head says mid-table obscurity. We've endured a few dull years so I think most Forest fans would be happy to see decent football with a bit of flair return to the City Ground. Anything else is a bonus, but I'm intrigued by the new head coach-director of football combo - if it's good enough for Europe's elite then why not one of the continent's most famous clubs?
Most important player: Britt Assombalonga. We missed his goals desperately last term and if he can rediscover the form he showed before his horrific injury we'll be half way to success. Looks sharp in pre-season.
Who will win the league? Newcastle United
Dark horse? Bristol City
One Championship player you'd want to sign: Ross McCormack
Ollie's prediction: 12th
Forest will have more to shout about this season and I can see them potentially troubling the top half if the new manager hits the ground running and adapts to the league.
Sky Bet odds
Nottingham Forest ended last year in 16th place in the Sky Bet Championship and they're odds-on at 8/15 for another bottom-half finish in the 2016/17 campaign. New manager Montanier is 11/2 to guide the team into the play-off places (or above), while it's 66/1 Forest win the title and 16/1 they gain promotion to the Premier League by any means.
Striker Assombalonga has 16 goals for the club and he's a 20/1 shot with Sky Bet to top the scoring charts in the second tier of English football.
