Odysseas Vlachodimos: Nottingham Forest's new goalkeeper set to fulfil EPL dream
By the standard of the summer of 2022, Nottingham Forest had been notably restrained throughout the most recent transfer window.
After impressively keeping Forest in the Premier League while also integrating a remarkable 30 new signings last season, Steve Cooper oversaw the arrival of just three players before the start of the 2023/24 campaign.
But once the season started, Forest - led by Evangelos Marinakis, their enigmatic owner - couldn't help themselves. The chequebook came back out.
Three new signings arrived between the start of the season and Deadline Day - but Forest were far from finished.
The East Midlanders dominated the headlines in the final 24 hours of the window by bringing in seven players, with the £30m capture of Ibrahim Sangare from PSV the most eye-catching.
Once the dust had settled, Marinakis wrote an open letter to Forest supporters in which he proclaimed: "Our vision for the club is clear and unwavering. We are on a path to re-establish Nottingham Forest as a dominant force in English football."
That flurry of activity - combined with the owner's bullish claims - helped explain why the £7.7m signing of goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from Benfica went under the radar.
But a closer inspection of the 29-year-old's career suggests that, in a window where Chelsea paid £25m for Robert Sanchez and Arsenal agreed a £27m future fee for David Raya, Forest may have pulled off a coup.
Up until the final weeks of the window, Vlachodimos' status as a key member of Benfica's first XI seemed secure.
The Greece international joined the Portuguese club from Panathinaikos in 2018 and immediately established himself as their No 1, going on to make 225 appearances and helping Benfica to the Portuguese title in 2019 and 2023.
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