Well it is nice to have some concrete news to report, although we cannot yet sound the klaxon to herald some new signings. For those of you who like rumours, there are a couple more at the bottom of the page!

After Steve McClaren announced that he would like Little Robbie Earnshaw and Big Guy Moussi to stay at The City Ground, the manager has flown out to France to meet the midfielder. We await the results of these talks with baited breath, as the players will officially become free agents on Friday (with a bit of luck, we can expect the club to announce some signings then as players sever their ties to their previous employers).

In other news, Forest have announced that the pre-season friendly against Wolverhampton Wanderers has been cancelled, following in the footsteps of the rather less illustrious match against Burton Albion. The pre-season fixture list has undergone a number of changes, which NFFCblog has commented on rather eloquently.

I promised some rumours, didn’t I? Well it doesn’t look as though Kris Boyd will be coming to the City Ground after all, with McClaren apparently preferring to focus on Nicky Maynard.

The same article also suggests that Forest have an interest in Dundee United’s amusingly-named David Goodwillie (stop sniggering!), but will face competition from Rangers, Blackpool and Cardiff (God help us all) for his signature. Goodwillie carries baggage however, and is currently awaiting trial following a rape charge – in the week that Hearts issued a bizarrely paranoid statement defending convicted sex offender Craig Thomson, amongst calls for the player to be sacked, surely Forest cannot take a chance in signing a player who could end up on the sex offender’s register (or in jail)?

Back to the subject of Maynard, the rumour mill suggests that Leicester’s swoop for Craig Mackail-Smith may signal the end of their interest in the Brizzle City striker, putting Forest in pole position for his signature; it’s worth pointing out that the Foxes are unlikely to land the Peterborough man, who will surely go to the Premier League.