Three-time Champions League winner Keylor Navas has joined two-time European Cup winners Nottingham Forest on loan. Oliver Hardt - FIFA/FIFA via Getty ImagesSince earning a long-awaited return to the Premier League last summer, Nottingham Forest have been the top flight's most relentless club when it comes to transfer activity, putting even big-spending Chelsea in the shade.
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After gaining promotion from the Championship via the playoffs, Forest urgently needed to flesh out a thin squad in order to cope with the rigours of competing at an elite level. It made a big splash by signing 21 new players during the summer of 2022.
That was enough to smash the British record for signings made by one club during a single transfer window by eclipsing the 19 players that arrived at Scottish sides Dundee (summer of 2000) and Livingston (2001).
After a very rocky start to life in the Premier League that saw Steve Cooper's side win just one of their first 11 games, Forest gradually began to find their feet and avoid being cut adrift at the bottom of the table, to the point where they enter February in 13th place, four points above the relegation zone.
In an effort to improve their chances of survival, the Reds picked up where they left off in the summer and have added several more signings to their roster in January, with no fewer than seven new faces joining the ranks on Trentside. Oh, and let's not forget the three free agents they recruited outside of the two transfer windows, just to keep the club's HR department on its toes.
So exactly who makes up Forest's vast troupe of 2022-23 signings? Let's meet them all.
Jump to: Summer signings | Free agents | January arrivals | Another free agent
Nottingham Forest have signed enough players this season to field two full teams (with a little creativity over positions) and still leave several out. Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesSummer signings
1. Taiwo Awoniyi (£17.5m, Union Berlin)
The first of the summer arrivals to break the club's transfer record (but not the last), ex-Liverpool striker Awoniyi was plucked from Union Berlin after scoring 20 goals in 43 games for the German club last season.
2. Dean Henderson (season-long loan, Manchester United)
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On the books at Manchester United from the age of 14, Henderson progressed through the youth ranks but was regularly sent out on loan in search of experience, eventually cracking the Premier League while on loan with Sheffield United in 2020-21. The goalkeeper made 13 league appearances for United the following season, but with David de Gea impossible to shake off the No. 1 spot, the 25-year-old opted for yet another loan at Forest in a bid to advance his chances of making England's 2022 World Cup squad, although he wasn't selected for the trip to Qatar.
3. Giulian Biancone (£9m, Troyes)
A 22-year-old full-back who started his career with Monaco before taking in unremarkable stints at Monaco's Belgian partner club Cercle Brugge and back in France with Ligue 1 side Troyes, for whom he played 33 times last season.
4. Moussa Niakhate (£9m, Mainz 05)
A former under-21 international for France, the tough 26-year-old centre-back was a mainstay for Mainz over the past few years, making well over 120 Bundesliga appearances for the club in his four-year stint in Germany.
5. Omar Richards (£7.7m, Bayern Munich)
Not many players can claim to have transferred directly between Reading and Bayern Munich, but that's exactly the path taken by left-back Richards when he signed for the German giants in the summer of 2021. The former England U21 international made just five league starts for the Bavarians in his debut year and therefore felt the time was right to cut his contract short and return to England.
6. Neco Williams (£18m, Liverpool)
I'm proud to announce I've signed for @NFFC ! Excited for this new challenge and to help this great club move forward in the @premierleague . Can't wait to get going and to play in the famous city ground. Now it's go time !!!