Nottingham Forest Manager Aitor Karanka Admits Hopes of Signing West Ham Defender

Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka hopes that they can confirm the signing of a new right-back this weekend – with West Ham United’s Sam Byram revealed as the leading candidate.

The Reds boss is keen to bring strength in depth to his side to assist with the amount of games Forest will have to endure, and the former Leeds United man tops their list.

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Byram came off the bench in West Ham’s 3-1 win against Aston Villa on Wednesday evening, and the Nottingham Post report that Karanka has named Byram as one of the players on his radar.

The Nottingham-based outfit are also monitoring the progress of Bristol Rovers and Wales international Tom Lockyer as an alternative if they can’t get the Byram deal pushed through.

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Karanka confirmed that he hopes that there is activity during the weekend and insists that they won’t make mistakes as Forest have a good squad, he said, “Yes, I hope it happens before the weekend.

“We have been doing business really well since the season finished. We know the players we have targeted, and it is about bringing in the right one.

“We are not going to make a mistake, because we are building a very good squad and we need to be sure that the right-back who comes, is also the right one.”

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Karanka then confirmed that Sam Byram is one of the players that Forest are currently tracking.

“Sam is one of them. He is a Premier League player and we need to work differently in different situations.”

Nottingham Forest’s pre-season preparations continue this weekend as they look towards their first game of the season in the Championship against Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday, August 4th