Andre Ayew’s introduction off the bench against Leeds United saw Nottingham Forest break a 17-year-old Premier League record.
A total of 22 players have now made their league debuts for the club so far in 2022/23, including 17 summer signings and five winter arrivals. The debuts of goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who started after arriving on loan from PSG, and Ayew took Forest beyond of the record set by Portsmouth, then managed by Harry Redknapp, reports PA.
Portsmouth handed out 21 debuts in 2005/06, having limped to a 16th-placed finish in the previous campaign. Alain Perrin was in charge at the start of the term, but was sacked in November with Pompey in the relegation zone.
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Redknapp, who had left for rivals Southampton only a year earlier, returned to the club in December and ultimately secured safety. Perrin awarded 12 players their league debuts before his dismissal, while Redknapp named nine further debutants on the back of a busy January transfer window.
The mid-season arrivals took a while to gel – Pompey collected one point from eight games between the New Year and early March – but they eventually found form.
Led by the likes of Pedro Mendes and Benjani Mwaruwari, Redknapp’s side earned 20 points from their final 10 matches to survive in 17th. Forest are showing similar signs of recovery. After a tough start as the influx of new faces settled in, the Reds have risen to 13th in the table, six points above the drop zone.
The next two seasons under Redknapp were Pompey's most successful since the 1940s, with Pompey finishing ninth in 2006/07 and eighth in 2007/08, winning the FA Cup in the latter campaign. However, Portsmouth had dropped down to League Two by 2013-14, having entered administration twice in the intervening years.
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