‘This has the potential to be an excellent signing’ – Nottingham Forest sign 21-year-old: The verdict

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict’ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Nottingham Forest have confirmed the signing of Jonathan Panzo from French side Dijon. 

The 21-year old defender arrives to the club battling for a play-off place in the Championship. Steve Cooper’s side are eighth in the table.

The deadline day signing worked under Cooper before as an U17 England international.

Here, our FLW writers share their thoughts on the move…

Panzo has embarked on a very unique pathway to the Championship as a young footballer. 

Making it harder to predict how he will transition from relatively irregular action in French football to Nottingham Forest’s play-off push.

With injuries to Joe Worrall and Loic Mbe Soh and Tobias Figueiredo likely to leave at the end of the season, it is certainly a smart signing squad depth wise. 

Learning alongside established defenders like Steve Cook and even Gaetan Bong who has achieved a lot in English football, should aid the 21-year-old’s development ahead of pushing for regular first team action next season.

It seems unlikely that Panzo will be rushed in by Steve Cooper, but he is a player that the Welshman will know well and will be confident of assisting him in making a successful transition into English football in the coming months.

If Panzo is able to maintain his fitness during the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign, he could go on to make a positive impact for Forest in the Championship.

Although it could take the defender some time to adapt to life in this division due to the fact that he has never played at this level before during his