Nottingham Forest sign £30m striker and Newcastle star in intriguing January transfer window prediction
Who will Nottingham Forest sign and sell in the January transfer window? We asked AI to predict the future...
Nottingham Forest are a club who seldom let a transfer window pass by quietly – and few believe that they will reach deadline day without making a few more deals, with several players potentially joining or leaving the side before 2 February. But of all the many players linked with a switch to the City Ground, just who will actually be signed, and who will pass Forest by?
It’s far from easy to figure out, and Forest certainly won’t be able to complete every deal which has cropped up in the gossip columns – so to try and get a picture of what Forest’s transfer window may end up looking like, we decided to find out just how far a popular AI algorithm has come and ask it to predict what business will be done over the next week or so. Will it give us a realistic insight into Forest’s dealings? Or is AI still not ready to do anything more than churn out mediocre essays for students who can’t be bothered to do their homework? Let’s find out…
Nottingham Forest make three new signings including Newcastle star – according to AI
Our AI prediction starts with a pretty safe bet – so safe, in fact, that we wouldn’t be at all surprised if this deal was done by the time you’re reading this. Apparently negotiations over a loan-to-buy deal for Napoli striker Lorenzo Lucca will prove successful, with the final fee adding up to around £30m.
That’s exactly what widespread press reports have already told us, so it’s hard proof of AI’s competency one way or the other, but it does have some more guesses for us, starting with the claim that Forest will sign Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas to replace Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Tsimikas is in much the same situation as the Ukrainian and is available with his loan deal at AS Roma likely to be terminated imminently, and the AI reckons that the Greek left-back will arrive on loan before deadline day, with no obligation to purchase. That’s in line with a report from The Athletic on Thursday.
More surprising, perhaps, is that the AI also reckons that Nottingham Forest will bag a new midfielder before the deadline – and so far as we can tell, its suggestion that they will sign Newcastle’s Joe Willock is one that springs from its own virtual imagination rather than being cribbed from existing media reports.
Apparently Willock, who is rapidly becoming a fringe player at St. James’ Park following the emergence of Lewis Miley, will be another loan signing with a low initial fee, and without an obligation to buy. Certainly the AI reckons that Forest will be handling the January window in a more budget-conscious manner than they have done at times in the past…
Three players out as Forest make deadline day moves
The AI also reckons that three players will follow striker Arnaud Kalimuendo out of the exit door, starting with versatile forward James McAtee, whose career at the City Ground has failed to achieve lift-off over the first six months.
McAtee will apparently be off on loan to Porto, with a £30m option to purchase in the contract – a deal which would see Nottingham Forest break more or less even on the deal which brought one of the stars of England’s summer Under-21 Championship win to the club from Manchester City.
Another player who hasn’t had the best six months at the club, Douglas Luiz, will also be on his way out apparently. The Juventus loanee is predicted to have his deal cut short, Zinchenko-style, and to move to former club Aston Villa instead. That, too, was suggested in the media earlier in the week.
Finally, the AI reckons that Forest will say a fond farewell to Nigerian forward Taiwo Awoniyi, who will apparently head off on loan with an option to buy to Bundesliga side Mainz.
All in all, nothing the AI has suggested seems insensible, even if we can’t shake the sensation that it’s mostly copying transfer reporters’ homework rather than coming up with anything which could be mistaken for originality – the link to Willock being the interesting exception. If that deal does indeed happen, we may need to start having some chats about just how clever we allow AI to become. We’ve all seen The Terminator, right?