Former Nottingham Forest manager Dougie Freedman has admitted that he regrets his decision to sell winger Michail Antonio to West Ham United in September according to the Nottingham Post.
The pacey 26 year old started the season in good goalscoring form for Forest with the winger netting four goals in five matches before West Ham United came calling for the player’s services with a £7 million transfer bid.
With Forest in financial turmoil and under a transfer embargo, manager Dougie Freedman made the decision to sell the player leaving the club short of attacking options. When looking back on the decision, Freedman has admitted that the sale of Michail Antonio is something which he deeply regrets.
“Michail Antonio was a decision which, maybe looking back, I regret” the former Forest boss admitted during a recent television interview. “But I think at the time, with this financial thing over our heads, we had to make a decision.”
“And Fawaz, to be fair to him, let me make the decision, and we had to sell Michail Antonio, which dented us.”
“But the recruitment policy we put in place, with free transfers and loans, I felt was the right thing to do.”
Nottingham Forest have struggled for goalscoring form since Michail Antonio’s departure with the Midlands club netting just 40 goals in their 44 league fixtures to date, a record which is only better than relegated pair MK Dons and Charlton Athletic. Forest’s 3-1 victory at Fulham on Saturday was their first win in nine league outings.
