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Former Nottingham Forest chief defends January transfer business following sacking
Former Nottingham Forest sporting director Filippo Giraldi has defended the club’s January business.
The 49-year-old was sacked by the Reds in April following the 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa, the result coming a few days after losing to relegation rivals Leeds and saw Steve Cooper ’s men drop back into the relegation zone for the first time since January.
Giraldi was not responsible for the 22 players brought in during last summer’s transfer window but oversaw seven new additions in the mid-term window – Andre Ayew (free agent), Keylor Navas (Paris Saint-Germain), Felipe (Atletico Madrid), Danilo and Gustavo Scarpa (Palmeiras), Chris Wood and Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle).
Speaking to The Athletic, the talent spotter says he has “no regrets” over recruitment, having worked closely with Cooper on it “for 10 to 12 hours” every day.
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“I’m not hiding about the ones who have not worked because these players have helped us win games since January and stay up in one of the most difficult relegation battles,” he said.
That includes Chris Wood, who scored one goal in seven games (albeit in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City) before getting injured: “I know there’s been criticism about that but, for the cost, it was for us the best choice possible at that moment because we have a financial fair play limit. We cannot go and buy a striker for £40-50million.
“Taiwo Awoniyi’s injury meant we had to react. I know people wanted the best in the world, but in a relegation battle you have to go for what is available and what was very important for us was players used to these types of games.”
Addressing the criticism of Shelvey, he added: “His performance should have been better. I’m not hiding from that, but he got 200 games, including at Newcastle last year who were in the same position as Forest. So he was used to this type of game psychologically.”
Giraldi was instrumental in getting Brazilian Danilo to the City Ground, who came to the fore after the defeat at Villa. “I’d loved Danilo for a long time. He was too young to sign when I was at Watford, but it’s a market I have a strong connection with and have kept watching a lot of players since leaving.
“I pushed so much to make it happen in January. I was convinced, despite some others having doubts, that it was the right time so he could spend six months adapting.”
Giraldi also worked hard, with the owner, to bring in their first-choice goalkeeper target Keylor Navas from PSG after Dean Henderson’s injury. “Without (the owner’s) love for the club, it’s impossible to sign a player like Keylor. I was in contact with (Navas) and he was eager to come even before the Manchester United cup game. He said: ‘I have my luggage and I’m ready to come’. It wasn’t possible to find an agreement with PSG, so we tried everything and with the salaries for players like this being so huge, you need an owner to make the extra effort.”
Felipe’s experience also made a difference, and it was another signing in which Giraldi’s connections played a part. “The sporting director at Atletico Madrid is Italian (Andrea Berta), I’m Italian and we had a small issue before the signing so I had to push the deal strongly and take personal responsibility at a certain moment because we were struggling.
“When you want to stay up, you want men like this: who’ve played Champions League finals, 200 games, won the league in Spain. You know what you’re going to get: a positive character, that even if they lose one or two games they don’t fall apart, they stay solid.”
Giraldi admits the final signing of Andre Ayew was “a special gift from the owner to the coach” due to their previous link at Swansea, but to add depth he “was happy because the reasoning behind the signing was correct”.
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