Why Nottingham Forest should have avoided signing Adama Diakhaby
According to Nottinghamshire Live, Nottingham Forest have completed a loan deal for out-of-favour Huddersfield Town winger Adama Diakhaby, who had been deemed surplus to requirements by boss Danny Cowley.
As per the report, the Reds have reached an agreement with Huddersfield over a loan deal for the 23-year-old, who had been left out of the last nine matchday squads of the Terriers in the Championship.
Diakhaby played a part in 18 of the club’s first 19 league fixtures earlier in the campaign, starting nine times and featuring as a substitute on an equal number of occasions. However, he was completely overlooked by Cowley over the past couple of months.
Born in Ajaccio, France, to parents of Senegalese descent, Diakhaby started his career with Caen in the Championnat National and went on to play for Rennes and Monaco in the Ligue 1 before earning a move to the Premier League with Huddersfield Town back in the summer of 2018.
However, the former French U21 international struggled to acclimatize to the level of competition in the Premier League as the Terriers got relegated and his progress in the Championship this term has been equally disappointing.
Diakhaby, who failed to open his goal account for the Terriers in 31 appearances across all competitions, is a left-footed winger with the versatility to play out wide on both flanks. He is also capable of playing up top as a striker.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest returned to winning ways in the Championship with a comfortable 3-1 victory over relegation-threatened Luton Town. The Reds went behind to Harry Cornick’s opener but a brace from Joe Lolley coupled with a late penalty from Grabban ensured that the Reds stayed upbeat in the playoff race with three valuable points.
Forest’s loan deal for an unproven player like Adama Diakhaby seems like a waste of valuable resources despite their requirements.
Verdict
The 23-year-old’s switch to English football has proven to be an absolute disaster, with Diakhaby failing to get his name on the scoresheet even once at Huddersfield.
Moreover, there is no real evidence to suggest that the Frenchman would be any sort of an upgrade on Forest’s existing wide options – Joe Lolley, Sammy Ameobi, Joao Carvalho and Albert Adomah – all of whom have fared way better than Diakhaby in the ongoing campaign.
Forest need more goals to aid their push for the playoffs and Diakhaby hasn’t scored one in over 12 months. Lamouchi’s men can ill-afford to play gambles at this stage of the season and this simply looks like a knee-jerk signing that Forest could have done without.
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Now that they have ended up signing him, Forest can only hope for Adama Diakhaby to make some kind of a positive impact during the all-important final quarter of the campaign.
