Bid made: Forest now eyeing "wonderful" £25k-p/w talisman, he could rival Awoniyi - opinion

Nottingham Forest submitted a bid to sign another striker who can challenge Taiwo Awoniyi…

That’s according to French publication L’Equipe, which states that both the Reds and Wolverhampton Wanderers have tabled bids for Bordeaux striker Hwang Ui-Jo.

Steve Cooper’s bid is reportedly in the region of €5m (£4.2m) including add-ons, which the hierarchy at the French club are led to accept.

With only a year left on his contract, this will have played a part in the shrewd nature of the deal. Fulham are also interested but are yet to make an offer.

Forest are a free-spending outlet this summer, having already brought in 12 new faces as the transfer links continue to flow in.

One of those new faces was highly rated Nigerian forward Awoniyi, who scored 15 times in just 31 Bundesliga games as Union Berlin mounted the most unlikely of European pushes.

Whilst he will be the star man up front for Cooper’s push to stay in the Premier League, Ui-Jo could certainly mount a viable challenge to keep the forward on his toes.

The 29-year-old would offer vast experience, and having scored 11 last season for a relegated Bordeaux, he has proven that he can contribute even if the side is one of the lesser ones in the league.

He must have something special about him, as this “wonderful” talisman is the only player other than Heung-min Son to win the South Korean footballer of the year since 2017.

To bring in the £25k-per-week marksman, who also missed a further seven big chances on top of his 11 goals, suggests that his ceiling can still go so much higher.

The manager could even spring a surprise and play them both up front, with Awoniyi proving with his 0.9 key passes per game that he could certainly feed Ui-Jo.

Perhaps devoting his prime