Former Nottingham Forest and England striker Garry Birtles believes the club should be recalling Tyler Walker from his loan spell at Lincoln City as soon as they can, as reported by the Nottingham Post.
The youngster got his fifth goal of the season in midweek as the Imps drew 1-1 away at Rochdale, which comes at a time when Forest are struggling for options up front.
Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi only has two out and out strikers on his ranks, Lewis Grabban and Rafa Mir, with Zach Clough also in the squad. As they hunt a promotion push, Birtles doesn’t believe that’s enough and he earmarked Walker as one to watch.
“Tyler Walker has already got five goals for Lincoln City this season after scoring against Rochdale on Tuesday night. That’s five in 11 games this season. If he keeps that ratio up then why not bring him back early from his loan spell in January?
“Nottingham Forest only have two senior strikers in contention at the moment and one of them, Rafa Mir, is yet to prove he can cut it in the Championship.
“That’s a lot of pressure on Lewis Grabban to deliver. At the moment he is absolutely doing that. If he gets injured it would be such a blow to Forest’s chances.
“They’ll have the chance to sign someone else in January if there is nothing in the free agent market before then, but it might be a case of why look elsewhere?”
Walker grabbed 26 goals for Mansfield Town last season and has seemingly stepped up to League One with ease. He’s one of only two strikers currently on the books at Lincoln, with John Akinde the other forward.
Our View
Bad luck Garry, but our understanding is that there will be no recall in January; there isn’t a clause in his deal that allows that.
Lincoln would be lost without the exciting forward, but at Forest he would be playing second fiddle to those two strikers.
The best thing for Forest is to spend in January and then give Walker his chance next season, from the off. Don’t pull him out of another loan spell that promises 20 goals and more confidence.
