Nottingham Forest had an absolute howler on "reliable" £8.5m World Cup record-breaker - opinion

Nottingham Forest will surely be implementing the lessons learned after the ambitious £150m splurge over the summer transfer window when the market re-opens next month.

Indeed, the Tricky Trees needed to rebuild their squad upon their promotion to the Premier League but it is safe to say some of the 22 new players acquired have not met the expectations that the club owner Evangelos Marinakis would have set.

Forest have spent the majority of their campaign in the relegation zone after a string of poor performances that have made it difficult for Steve Cooper to get his team competing and comfortably challenging in the top flight this season so far.

Marinakis even went as far as sacking his head of recruitment and head of scouting due to a disappointing review of the business done in the summer, not only in the recruitment of the current crop of players at The City Ground but also the players that the club have missed out on.

One player the club had on their radar but ultimately snubbed in the summer was Croatia and Dinamo Zagreb goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, with David Ornstein revealing that Forest had the opportunity to sign him for a cut price €5m-€10m (£4.2m – £8.5m).

The Athletic journalist revealed that Forest were close to snapping up the talented ‘keeper but decided they wanted a more ‘high-profile’ player to fill the role after Brice Samba departed – a decision that will now surely haunt Marinakis.

Livakovic has been representing his country at the World Cup in Qatar and has easily been one of the biggest stand-outs at the prestigious international tournaments, as well as breaking records whilst leading his team to the semi-finals with his outstanding shot-stopping.

The 27-year-old ace – who was dubbed “reliable” by Statman Dave – made four penalty shoot-out saves over the tournament, something no other stopper has achieved in World Cup history.

Over six appearances in the Middle East, Livakovic kept two clean sheets, completed 24 saves and won 100% of his aerial duels, as well as averaging 20.3 accurate passes and 38.2 touches per game, with his most notable performance coming in the penalty shoot-out against Brazil that knocked Neymar and his teammates out of the competition.

It has been reported over the last few days that Bayern Munich are now keen to secure the services of Livakovic to be the successor to Manuel Neuer after impressing the Bundesliga giants.

With that being said, it is safe to say that Marinakis and his recruitment team had a howler on Livakovic and it is likely there will be no opportunity for second chances with a club like Bayern now interested in the player.

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