I watched Rafa Mir’s performance on Friday night at Millwall and found myself asking, not for the first time, why did Nottingham Forest actually sign him?
Look, I’ll give him his due. He runs around a fair bit. But that’s about all he does.
A quick glance at his goalscoring record tells you he’s hardly prolific in front of goal – that, I assume, is why the club signed him in the first place, to find the net and take the pressure of Lewis Grabban?
He’s played 13 games at Forest, and not really looked like finding the net - in all honesty, he’s been a flop and will go down as one of the worst signings in a long time.
That is going to sound harsh, of that I’m well aware.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen nothing to suggest otherwise.
In the Spanish second division he managed to score a handful, a level far below the Championship and he’s never scored for Wolves, so for me, the alarm bells would have been ringing before he signed.
Forest did some good business in the summer transfer window, the arrival of Mir was not one of them.
Looking back, you’d have to say it was something of a panic arrival after missing out on a list of other targets and so it has proved.
It can’t be easy for him being a bit-part player that knows he’s always going to play second fiddle to Lewis Grabban, I’d still like to see more from him when he does get the chance.
Running around isn’t enough.
While it would be fair to say the team have hardly created oceans of chances for him, the emphasis must then fall on to him to try and fashion one, you have to sometimes grasp a chance with both hands.
The one’s he’s had haven’t found the back of the net and haven’t really come close.
I recall a gilt-edge effort away at Wigan which he really should have scored with, and maybe, just maybe, had that gone in, he may have scored more – we’ll never know the answer to that one.
Now, however, it really is Grabban or nothing as it proved to the manager again on Friday night at Millwall, if the experiment which went badly wrong at Wigan wasn’t proof enough.
Without Grabban that game is a costly defeat.
That’s why it’s imperative that Forest sign at least two strikers this summer and let Mir go back to Wolves.
The boy needs go to a club where he’ll play regularly, one which will be suited to his style and I don’t believe that’s the Championship.
Sometimes moves don’t work out and this is one that most certainly hasn’t.
Kenny Burns was in conversation with Barry Cooper
