Nottingham Forest are not having the most ideal start to their Premier League campaign after being promoted to the top flight by winning the Championship play-offs, with the side currently omitted to the relegation zone as they sit 19th in the league table.

Steve Cooper will be scratching his head after improving the squad by signing 22 new players this summer as his team are still struggling to pick up points with four defeats on the bounce in their last four outings.

Despite making more signings than any other Premier League club this summer, it might be a surprise that Forest did miss out on some of their top targets over the transfer window, with Maxwel Cornet making the move to West Ham United instead of The City Ground.

The former Burnley star was constantly linked with the newly-promoted side over the summer before completing a deal to join the east London club but it turns out that Evangelos Marinakis may have dodged a bullet by not triggering the relegated player's £17.5m release clause when he had the chance.

The Hammers currently join Forest in the Premier League relegation zone only above Cooper's team on goal difference after a devastating start to the season for the Europa League semi-finalists of last season, and Cornet has been struggling to make his mark in his new team.

The 25-year-old has been nothing short of anonymous during his first four outings in the league for his current club with just 8.8 touches and four passes completed per game with no goal contributions or big chances created either, albeit only playing 54 minutes in the top-flight so far.

It is clear that David Moyes is struggling to find the best way to deploy the player with the manager speaking out on Cornet's slow start, saying:

"I think it is probably his lateness back into pre-season and it is getting him back into condition really.

"But I think we are still finding out as well, looking at how we can best use him."

The last thing Cooper would've needed alongside the challenge of getting his new signings to establish connections on the pitch is a player who is lacking sharpness and struggling to find their identity in the team, and signing Cornet could've held back the Forest attacking threat even further had they secured his signature.

With that being said, Forest are in desperate need of a dominating presence and some confidence in the side, so not signing Cornet was clearly the right decision as the problems could've only extended further for Cooper if he had been reliant on the Ivorian attacker's contributions in the team.