It's been a busy deadline day at the City Ground so far, with Nottingham Forest kicking things off by signing teenage striker Rodrigo Ribeiro on loan from Sporting with an option to buy, having already tied up a temporary move for Borussia Dortmund's Gio Reyna on Wednesday night.
Manager Nuno, who's overseeing his first transfer window at the club after his appointment in December, has also been pursuing a new goalkeeper, and it looks like Matz Sels will be his man after Forest agreed a deal worth €6m, or £5.1m, to sign him from Strasbourg. Sels is now travelling to the UK to undergo a medical and complete a move that will likely spell the end of interest in Sam Johnstone at Crystal Palace.
Somewhat remarkably, the 31-year-old will become the third different goalkeeper signed by Forest this season after owner Evangelos Marinakis spent around £11.5m on Matt Turner and Odysseas Vlachodimos during last summer's transfer window.
Sels move baffles one reporter
Reacting to the move for Sels on Twitter, presenter and pundit Jack Collins appeared to criticise Marinakis for his reliance on transfers to solve every problem in his squad. With two comparable stoppers already on the books, he feels that the transfer makes no "sense" unless it heralds an imminent departure.
Sels shares same issue as Turner and Vlachodimos
First things first, you can see why Nuno wanted to bring in his own man between the sticks. After all, it's not his fault that neither of Steve Cooper's 2023 signings have impressed.
While Turner has started every Premier League game under the Portuguese, he had a five-game spell out of the side before Cooper's sacking, with Vlachodimos drafted in. Neither has been able to definitively make the spot their own, and that's partly because they've combined for the poorest shot-stopping record in the division.
Nottingham Forest
30.0
40
Brentford
26.6
36
Crystal Palace
29.1
36
Bournemouth
33.0
39
Brighton
30.9
37
The big question now, then, is whether Sels is the answer. Well, unfortunately, he too has under-performed this season, letting in two more goals than 'expected'.
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Even if he does ultimately offer a marginal improvement on what came before, you can see why Collins believes the investment isn't justified. Perhaps it was better to hold fire until the summer and press the reset button in that position, but Nuno clearly thought he couldn't afford to wait.