Forest gamble on quantity, City hit jackpot with Haaland

LONDON : Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper said on Thursday he was looking forward to the transfer window shutting, presumably so he could head home to sit in a dark room.

As the clock ticked down on deadline day, centre back Willy Boly became Forest's 19th signing of a head-spinning close season.

Only four of the players that started Forest's promotion playoff final on May 29 started Wednesday's 6-0 hammering at Manchester City and that number will surely drop.

The former European champions, back in the top-flight for the first time since 1998-99, have spent close to 150 million pounds ($173.24 million) basically constructing a new team.

Forest's risky approach has been a curious sub-plot to a summer splurge of Premier League deals kick-started by champions Manchester City signing Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund for an initial 54 million pounds.

Three months later it is fair to say the Norway striker has bounded through the transfer window like a marauding Viking, laying waste to defences up and down the country.

With nine goals in five league games he is already looking great value for City - a club in the enviable position of slotting marquee signings into a squad oozing with quality.

For some of the other 19 Premier League clubs, the window has been fruitful but for others the complexities of the market kept them on tenterhooks until the window closed on Thursday.

While Forest's business looked like a manic supermarket sweep, Arsenal have been more selective.

Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko - both jettisoned by Manchester City - were snapped up early and have contributed to Arsenal's perfect start with Jesus, signed for 48 million pounds, already with three goals and three assists to his name.

Tottenham