Former Nottingham Forest favourite Chris Cohen was the guest on the latest Garibaldi Red podcast as he discussed the current Premier League season

Chris Cohen says Nottingham Forest fans should not expect briliance from Ibraham Sangare straight away.

Sangare was a statement signing for the Reds this summer after his £30m-plus move from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven.

The 25-year-old Ivory Coast international had previously been linked with Liverpool and Bayern Munich among others and while Cohen is sure he’s a huge talent, the former Forest player and U21s coach says patience might be needed to allow him to settle in.

“I’d be lying if I said I’d seen a lot of him, but from what I’ve seen, he looks like the real deal.” I’ve seen video of him and saw the PSV preseason game. “There are a lot of factors to consider,” he said on the Garibaldi Red podcast.

“He’s just moved to a new country, and the Premier League is the toughest league in the world.” It will be more difficult than the Eredivisie week in and week out. If he continues to perform as well as he has, he will receive significant interest from clubs of varying sizes.

“They also have really good players in that position. Ryan Yates has done a brilliant job and rose to the level, Orel Mangala is a good player and they’ve got the boy from Chelsea (Andrey Santos) that can play. They’ve got lots of players who are adequate replacements if he can’t do it, but out of all them, he’s the one with the most hype and it will be really interesting to see how he gets on.”

Sangare is one of a number of defensive midfielders that represent significant investments for their new clubs, with Arsenal and Chelsea spending over £100 million on Declan Rice and Moises Caidcedo, respectively, while Chelsea also paid £58 million for Romeo Lavia.

Former Southampton and Luton assistant manager Cohen believes the game is becoming more aware of the monetary value of a great defensive midfielder as evidence to back up their performances becomes more prominent.

“There are a lot of statistics and data now that you can put a value on them.” “I think before, if you watched them every week or were in the club with them, you could see the value of a player like Paul McKenna to Forest (when Cohen played).”

“Perhaps you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t watching every week.” Each position in the Premier League is now subject to intense examination.

“It is widely acknowledged as one of the most important positions.” Previously, it was always just the goalkeeper and the striker. You have data ranging from interceptions to dual victories, but they also have packing models that show how many lines are broken when they pass forwards.

“You look at things you sensed before but didn’t have numbers to back up. It helps clubs understand why they need to spend money on them. You have measurements for everything, and Sangare will score well on them all.”

Sangare, who has scarcely practiced with his new squad owing to international duty, might make his debut for Forest in Monday’s Premier League game against Burnley at the City Ground.