Nottingham Forest will be looking to put what was an incredibly disappointing 2020/21 campaign behind them later this year by making an encouraging start to the new term.
Drafted in as a replacement for Sabri Lamouchi, Chris Hughton would have been determined to bring a feel-good factor back to the City Ground last season.
However, a lack of consistency by his side resulted in the club meandering their way to a 17th place finish in the Championship standings.
Whilst the Reds were relatively impressive in a defensive sense last season, they were let down by a lack of attacking creativity.
During the 46 league games that they played, Forest only managed to find the back of the net on 37 occasions as the likes of Lyle Taylor, Glenn Murray and Lewis Grabban all faltered in-front of goal.
Considering that Murray recently opted to call time on his career, the Reds are relatively short of options up-front and thus Hughton may need to address this issue in the coming weeks.
One of the players who has recently emerged as a potential target for Forest is M'Baye Niang.
According to French news outlet Foot Mercato, the Reds are one of a number of clubs who are believed to be keeping tabs on the forward's situation at Stade Rennais.
It is believed that Forest have initiated contact for Niang as they look to beat the likes of Celtic, Anderlecht and Venezia FC to his signature.
Niang is also understood to be attracting interest from several unnamed Turkish sides.
The Senegal international returned to Stade Rennais earlier this month following a loan spell with Saudi Arabian side Al Ahly in which he struggled to deliver the goods.
During the five appearances that he made for the club earlier this year, Niang failed to score a goal.
GIVEMESPORT's Joshua Cole says...
Whilst Forest clearly need to bolster their attacking options in the coming weeks, they ought to steer clear of a move for Niang.
Although the six-foot two-inch forward managed to find the back of the net on 15 occasions during the 2019/20 campaign for Stade Rennais, he looked a shadow of his former self last season.
Before sealing a temporary switch to Al Ahly, Niang averaged an incredibly poor WhoScored match rating of 6.29 in the nine Ligue 1 games that he played for Les Rouge et Noir.
When you consider that the 26-year-old has yet to play in the Championship, there is no guarantee that he will be able to cope with the competitiveness that this division is famed for.
Keeping this in mind, it could be argued that Forest ought to switch their focus from signing Niang to sealing a move for an individual who has a proven track-record of delivering the goods at this level.
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