Nottingham Forest’s 2022 summer transfer window is one that will go down in Premier League history, albeit for the wrong reasons. The club’s decision to bring in a staggering 23 new players that summer has often been described as a frantic attempt to overhaul the squad and ensure Premier League survival. Steve Cooper, the Forest manager at the time, faced the challenge of assembling a competitive team in a short window, and the strategy to buy heavily was seen as a means of quickly strengthening the squad.

The success rate of this bold approach, however, has been mixed. On one hand, there have been standout signings like Morgan Gibbs-White, who was brought in from Wolves for a significant fee. He has since proven to be a vital player for Forest, earning admiration from fans and experts alike. His performances have been strong enough to catch the eye of bigger clubs, with Liverpool reportedly interested in his services in the future. Another success story has been Danilo, who joined from Brazilian side Palmeiras. After a slow start, Danilo began to find his feet in the Premier League and made an impact in Forest’s midfield. He had to recover from an injury but has now returned and looks poised to become a mainstay in the team.

However, not every signing from that transfer spree has lived up to the hype or expectations, and some have been forgotten almost as quickly as they arrived. A key example of this is Emmanuel Dennis, a striker brought in from Watford in the summer of 2022 after a solid Premier League campaign where he scored 10 goals for the Hornets. Forest, hoping to tap into Dennis’ top-flight pedigree, brought him in with the intention of strengthening their attacking options. The hope was that he could replicate his Watford form at the City Ground and be a useful asset in the Premier League.

Unfortunately for Dennis, things didn’t go to plan. His time at Forest has been plagued by inconsistency and a lack of significant impact. Despite his pedigree, he struggled to find regular game time and never truly established himself as a key figure in the squad. By the summer of 2023, it was clear that the relationship between Forest and Dennis was not working, and the club was reportedly ready to move him on, just a year after his arrival. But despite the club’s attempts to offload him, Dennis found himself stuck at Forest, having been shipped out on loan to various clubs, but with no permanent move materializing. As of now, the Nigerian forward remains on Forest’s books, earning a reported £40,000 per week, which has made it increasingly difficult for the club to find a suitor willing to take him on.

The situation surrounding Dennis has been made all the more complicated by his inflated wages, which are seen as a major hurdle for any potential deal. Sheffield Wednesday, a Championship side, has emerged as a potential destination for the striker, but it remains unclear whether they would be able to meet his high wage demands. According to Sheffield Wednesday journalist Alex Miller, Dennis is “one of the striker options being considered” by the Owls, but he later clarified that securing a deal for the player would likely be difficult. The striker’s wages are believed to be a major stumbling block, especially for clubs in the Championship, where wage budgets are more constrained compared to the Premier League.

Reports also suggest that Dennis has attracted interest from other clubs, with teams in England, Spain, and Italy keeping tabs on him. However, as his wage demands are seen as exorbitant relative to his recent performances, it’s hard to see how any deal could come to fruition unless his salary is heavily subsidized or he agrees to take a pay cut. Given that he is still under contract at Forest, the club may find it difficult to sell him outright, especially with other teams potentially unwilling to meet the asking price for both the transfer fee and the wages. In this respect, Dennis has become an expensive problem for Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis.

In terms of wages, Dennis’s £40,000-a-week salary is a glaring issue for Forest. Remarkably, he earns as much as some of the club’s key signings, including Elliot Anderson and Murillo, both of whom are seen as integral players to the club’s current setup. More astonishingly, there are other members of the squad who earn significantly less than Dennis, despite being key contributors to the team. For example, Matz Sels, the club’s goalkeeper, earns less per week than Dennis, despite putting in solid performances. The most notable wage discrepancy, however, is between Dennis and Anthony Elanga, the Swedish international winger who has been a highly sought-after talent. Elanga, who has attracted interest from Newcastle United, is reportedly earning almost half of what Dennis takes home each week, which underscores the stark imbalance in Forest’s wage structure.

As the 2024 January transfer window approaches, it seems increasingly likely that Forest will need to part ways with Dennis to alleviate some of the financial strain his high wages are causing. The club is still living with the repercussions of the chaotic 2022 transfer window, which has left them with several underperforming players on inflated contracts. Moving Dennis on, ideally in January, would help the club cut its losses and free up some much-needed funds for more prudent investments in the future. While there is interest from Sheffield Wednesday and potentially other clubs, the key issue remains whether any team can match his current wage demands.

For Evangelos Marinakis, who was eager to strengthen the squad for Premier League survival during the 2022 transfer window, offloading Dennis is likely to be one of his top priorities in the near future. With the financial burden he places on the club’s wage bill, letting him go, even if it means taking a loss on the original transfer fee, may be the only viable option. For Dennis, his time at Forest has been a disappointment, and unless something drastic changes in the coming months, it seems inevitable that he will be moving on — potentially dropping down to the Championship or even further afield in Europe.

Ultimately, the Emmanuel Dennis saga serves as a cautionary tale for clubs who embark on high-stakes transfer sprees without sufficient planning. Nottingham Forest’s experience highlights the dangers of signing players on inflated wages without carefully assessing whether they will fit into the squad and live up to expectations. In this case, the combination of poor performances and financial imbalance has left Forest with an expensive misstep that they will be eager to resolve. As the transfer window looms, the club will be hoping to rid itself of this costly mistake and focus on more strategic acquisitions in the future.