Well, my earlier cynicism seems misplaced – Forest have gone for an unexpected move and taken England U18 winger James Henry on loan for a month – with a view to extending it until the end of the season. The youngster has apparently impressed in Reading’s reserves this season – and will be eligible for Saturday’s game against Cheltenham, before hotfooting it off to join his England U18 colleagues.
The youngster certainly talks the talk:
“It’s a great opportunity for me to gain some experience of first team football. I first heard about Forest’s interest about a month ago, but I had a niggling injury on my ankle so it couldn’t happen then. But I found out on Wednesday that I’d be leaving after the reserve game with Fulham so it was a sudden move really.
Forest are a massive club and they’re only four points behind Bristol city for an automatic promotion space, so they are going to be really competitive games in front of big crowds – I’m really looking forward to that. Hopefully I can go and have an influence on their season by playing well for them.
It’s a month loan with a view to perhaps extending until the end of the season. It’s going to be totally different for me being involved in games which mean a huge deal to the fans and club. Academy and reserve games are important for development, but there’s nothing like the first team. There are huge things at stake for Forest and I’ll be giving everything to their cause.”
I like the sound of that, and who would have thought it… a winger! Good move, Smoulds – quite a brave one, considering how unproven he is, but given the impact of giving a certain Lewis McGugan a chance to shine lately, it could certainly prove a gamble worth making. Whether or not James gets a chance at the weekend remains to be seen, but common sense would suggest that it would be a foolish signing to make if you had no intention of playing him.
22 March, 2007 at 11:44 am |
FOREST SIGN HENRY! Class!
Have we shipped Kevin James does anyone know?
22 March, 2007 at 12:59 pm |
Don’t think so, can he be that bad to be ignored for this long!!! its got to be an attitude problem
Good signing but doesn’t say much for CC’s confidence in Felix
22 March, 2007 at 1:10 pm |
Felix is left footed though – we need at least one proper right winger in the squad!
22 March, 2007 at 1:11 pm |
Good signing indeed, but I guess that Henry is a right winger but Felix is a left winger right?
From what I gather on Bastians situation, on the Halifax Town website they were moaning he was due to finish his loan at the weekend and Forest recalled him early. I know that there were rumours as per previous post on this blog but this is from the ‘Offical’ website. If true though, surely that means that CC is gonna include him somewhere in his plans cause he was going well at Halifax – unless we were desperate for a left sided midfielder in the reserves win against Stoke…which doesnt really make sense.
22 March, 2007 at 2:02 pm |
This could prove to be a very shrewd signing, particularly if he is as good as some people seem to think. I really like what he said, acknowledging that he understands what is at stake for Forest. Giving everything to the cause is what what we want to see so good luck to the lad. I’ll be rooting for him to show his potential on Saturday!
22 March, 2007 at 3:10 pm |
Interesting to see that we have allowed Spencer Weir-Daley to go out on loan today when it was only yesterday that CC insisted he was coming back as cover.
Does this mean that there is a striker deal in the offing today?
I notice Scunthorpe have signed Quinn from Northampton as their new striker, despite being strongly linked with the ex Notts striker at Southampton.
Does that mean Leon Best is finally coming here?