Nuno Espirito Santo has raised doubts over Nottingham Forest’s recruitment process ahead of their Premier League opener against Brentford on Sunday.
Forest kick off the new campaign at home as they aim to put their faltering end to 2024-25, when they missed out on Champions League football, behind them.
The Tricky Trees have made four signings so far, including new striker Dan Ndoye from Bologna, while they are reportedly closing in on deals for James McAtee, Omari Hutchinson and Arnaud Kalimuendo.
A disappointing pre-season that saw Forest fail to win any of their seven games, while failing to score in six of those, has prompted Nuno to outline his fears over the lack of early signings.
“Dealing with doubts is the worst thing you can have in football,” he said. “We have doubts: who is going to be [here], when are they [new signings] going to come? All these things create doubts.
“Not only me but in the club. What we want is game-by-game to have as many options as possible. Europe will come after, and for sure it will be better, but for now, until that happens, it is a major concern.
“The owner is aware, the club is aware, everyone is aware. Everybody knows the reality. This is a lost chance that we had as a group to do it.”
Our 2025/26 squad numbers are locked in. pic.twitter.com/lkWHy4OJBZ
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) August 15, 2025
Brentford, meanwhile, have had an off-season full of change, both in the dugout and on the pitch.
Keith Andrews replaced Thomas Frank, who has joined Tottenham, as head coach, while key players in Bryan Mbeumo, Christian Norgaard and Mark Flekken have also departed.
There are also doubts over Yoane Wissa’s future, but after an unbeaten pre-season (W1 D2), Andrews is feeling confident ahead of his first Premier League match in charge.
“My emotions are pretty calm, to be honest; I’m a pretty calm individual by nature, in terms of what I do on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“We are ambitious as a football club, and I’m ambitious as an individual. We started that on the first day of pre-season, setting the intent for the season.
“The intentions have to be perfect. Will the outcome always be perfect? Probably not, if we’re being realistic. But I feel like we’re in a good place.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Nottingham Forest – Chris Wood
Chris Wood has scored on MD1 in three Premier League seasons, each with a different club: Leicester City in 2014-15, Burnley in 2020-21, and Nottingham Forest in 2024-25.
The only player to score on the opening day of multiple Premier League seasons for the Tricky Trees is Bryan Roy (1994-95 and 1995-96).
Brentford – Jordan Henderson
Jordan Henderson could make his Brentford debut in this match. Since his Premier League debut in November 2008, the midfielder ranks second in the competition for appearances (431) behind James Milner (461).
He has made the second-most successful passes (19,657) and won possession the outright most times (2,429) of any player in this time.
Firing before Forest pic.twitter.com/x4oq48crPf
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) August 15, 2025
MATCH PREDICTION: NOTTINGHAM FOREST WIN
Forest have won just one of their last eight league games against Brentford (D3 L4), a 2-0 away win in December last year, though they are coming up against an unknown component with Andrews now in charge.
They have not won their opening league match in any of the last seven seasons (D2 L5), since a 1-0 win against Millwall in the 2017-18 Championship campaign, though one of those draws did come against Bournemouth last year.
Forest lost three of their last four Premier League home games in 2024-25 (D1), having lost two of their first 15 at the City Ground last term (W9 D4), and Nuno will be hoping for another strong start on home soil.
Brentford have lost just two of their last 10 away league games against Nottingham Forest (W6 D2) and are unbeaten in their last four visits to the City Ground (W2 D2).
They have also never lost their opening match of a Premier League season (W2 D2), scoring exactly two goals in each match.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Nottingham Forest – 44%
Draw – 26.8%
Brentford – 29.2%
