Nottingham Forest have recognised George Syrianos’ importance to the club by promoting him to the role of global technical director.
Syrianos will not just take a significant role in Forest’s recruitment system but help to shape the development of Evangelos Marinakis’ other two clubs — Rio Ave of Portugal and Olympiacos of Greece, the newly crowned Europa Conference League winners.
Syrianos, who joined Forest as head of recruitment from VfB Stuttgart in May 2021, played an instrumental role in identifying the transfer targets who helped Forest win promotion from the Championship under Steve Cooper’s management in 2022.
In his advisory role to the board, Syrianos also identified a number of players, including Taiwo Awoniyi, Moussa Niakhate and Orel Mangala, who have played a key role in the team maintaining their top-flight status over the past two seasons.
Mangala, who signed from Stuttgart for £10.5million, left the City Ground earlier this year as part of a possible £30m package with Lyon, initially on loan, that made the Belgium international the most expensive deal of the January transfer window, as well as representing the biggest profit Forest have ever made on one of their signings.
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Marinakis is keen to sign more players who can return a profit and it also stands in Syrianos’ favour that Niakhate and particularly Awoniyi both fit into that bracket. Both players are attracting interest from potential buyers at a time when Forest are under pressure to sell one of their more valuable assets – Murillo, their Brazilian centre-half, being the obvious candidate – to avoid another breach of the Premier League’s profitability and suitability rules, having been docked four points last season.
Pedro Ferreira, previously Benfica’s chief scout, has also joined Forest’s set-up, officially starting work for Marinakis this week as the club’s new head of recruitment.
Forest are arranging a pre-season training camp in Spain, including the possibility of a game against Valencia, as well a couple of friendlies for Nuno Espirito Santos’ team at the City Ground, one likely to be against French opposition.
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(Photo by Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
