The Reds were once a giant in English football, and even have two European Cups to their name, but in recent years, success has been hard to come by.
That was until the 2021/22 season as Forest finally achieved promotion from the Championship to make a long-awaited return to top-flight football.
Although the club had suffered in the EFL, there were still positives to take from that spell, including the number of youth talents that they produced. The likes of Jermaine Jenas, Michael Dawson, Joe Worrall and Brennan Johnson, just to name a few, have all come through the ranks at the City Ground over the last 25 years and gone on to have good careers.
In an alternate universe, Oliver Burke would be one of the names added to that list, but unfortunately, his career has panned out the way many expected it to. After making his professional debut at the age of 17, Forest had high hopes for Burke, who had been at their academy for almost a decade already.
Burke’s game time with the first team increased during the 2015/16 campaign, but the early stages of the following season was when he really accelerated.
Forest manager at the time, Philippe Montanier, liked what he saw in young Oliver Burke, and started him in four of the side’s first five games of the 2016/17 season; a decision that ended up paying off.
Burke scored four goals in four starts, and assisted one, which put him a lot of hype on his name at the time. Late in the summer transfer window of 2016, German club, RB Leipzig approached the youngster and paid £13 million to Nottingham Forest for his signature.
The Scotsman signed a five-year deal with RB Leipzig, but that unfortunately only lasted one year. He made his debut against Borussia Dortmund and assisted the game’s only goal after coming on as a substitute, but his spell went downhill after that.
Over the course of the season, he made 21 appearances, mostly as a substitute, and scored just one goal before being sold back to England, with West Brom paying £15 million.
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