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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Sarah Clapson

Dane Murphy explains Nottingham Forest 'investment' plan ahead of Premier League return

CEO Dane Murphy is confident "balanced and purposeful" investment will make Nottingham Forest an attractive proposition as they aim to "solidify" in the Premier League.

Having ended a 23-year absence from the top-flight with Sunday’s Wembley victory over Huddersfield Town, the Reds are now aiming to stay there. Owner Evangelos Marinakis has already ploughed millions into the club, and has said he will continue to splash the cash to back manager Steve Cooper.

It is not just in the dressing room where Forest want to strengthen, however. Murphy says the aim is to continue to "grow", and believes there will be no problem in retaining and recruiting the right people.

Read more: Why Nottingham Forest's magical season is about more than just promotion

Read more: 'They want me' - Forgotten Nottingham Forest midfielder sets out future hopes

“Even at Premier League level, you have an enormous scale. There are some clubs with a lot and some clubs with light resources, to put it politically correctly,” he told US radio station Sirius XM.

“I would say we’re somewhere in the middle. The owner wants to invest in all areas of the club, to make sure we’re at a standard that not only keeps the talent around and helps us grow, but attracts players, staff, individuals, who we may not have been able to bring in from continental Europe or from the Americas or wherever.

“It’s to make it an appealing club, with the feeling that, ‘okay, maybe I can’t go to Man U or Arsenal, but instead of going to the Bundesliga, I’ll go to Nottingham Forest because they’ve built a great system, a philosophy that people believe in, an actual plan and their infrastructure is right’.

“Does that take investment? Yes, of course. But again, it’s balanced and purposeful investment. It’s not just building an enormous training facility and a huge new academy.

“You can do that when you’ve had a lot of success in the Premier League or you’ve gone into Europe and have excess cash. But in the beginning, it’s incremental steps to build itself.

“Luckily, we can fall back on Nottingham Forest, being an historic club that now has a very young, ambitious manager and an ambitious group behind it that wants to push the club forward. That’s the attraction while we’re building out the rest of the infrastructure.”

Murphy added: “In the first year, we want to sustain ourselves, make sure we can push ourselves as far up the table, but really just solidify ourselves as a Premier League team, because the club itself is a Premier League club.”

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